Hitchcock v. State

In 1977 a jury convicted Hitchcock of first-degree murder and recommended the death penalty, which the trial court imposed and this Court affirmed. Hitchcock v. State, 413 So.2d 741 (Fla.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 960, 103 S.Ct. 274, 74 L.Ed.2d 213 *688(1982).1 After the signing of Hitchcock’s death warrant, this Court affirmed the trial court’s denial of postconviction relief. Hitchcock v. State, 432 So.2d 42 (Fla.1983). The United States Supreme Court, however, vacated Hitchcock’s sentence because “the advisory jury was instructed not to consider, and the sentencing judge refused to consider,…