Ray Lamar Johnston v. State of Florida
Annotate this CasePetitioner appealed the trial court's order denying his motion filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851 to vacate his conviction of first degree murder and sentence of death. Petitioner raised numerous claims of trial court error, ineffective assistance of counsel, and habeas relief. The court held that the trial court properly determined that counsel was not ineffective for offering the testimony of petitioner's brother; petitioner failed to demonstrate that counsel was ineffective in presenting the mental health mitigation; the trial court properly denied petitioner's claim that counsel was ineffective in allowing the admission of petitioner's confession to a prior murder; the trial properly admitted evidence of petitioner's prior murder conviction; counsel was not ineffective for failing to move to suppress petitioner's statements of law enforcement; petitioner was not entitled to relief where counsel was ineffective for failing to inform the jury that petitioner was medicated during a prior, unrelated trial; counsel was not ineffective for failing to object to erroneous jury instructions; and the trial court did not err in summarily denying several of petitioner's claims. The court also held that petitioner was not entitled to habeas relief where all of his claims were either without merit or procedurally barred.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.