Hojan v. Florida
Annotate this CaseHojan was charged with armed robbery, armed kidnapping, attempted murder, and two murders arising out of the 2002 robbery of and shooting of employees at a Waffle House. A surviving victim gave law enforcement officers a taped statement, in which she identified Mickel and Hojan, known to her, as being involved. The jury recommended death by a vote of nine to three, and the trial court followed that recommendation, finding six aggravators, one statutory mitigator, and two nonstatutory mitigators. After an unsuccessful direct appeal, Hojan sought post-conviction relief, arguing that the survivor’s statement to an officer was not an excited utterance; the trial court improperly treated Hojan’s waiver of the opportunity to present mitigating evidence in the penalty phase as a waiver of his opportunity to present motions challenging the death penalty; his confession should have been suppressed; Florida’s death penalty statute is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed the denial of relief, finding no error under Hojan’s asserted claims, that sufficient evidence exists, and that the death sentence is proportional. The court nonetheless granted Hojan a new penalty phase, based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in Hurst v. Florida.
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