Kearse v. State
In a death-warrant case, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the summary denial of Kearse's sixth successive 3.851 motion and denied his habeas petition, rejecting claims based on a juror's 2026 Facebook post about courtroom officer presence and a post-warrant WAIS-5 IQ score of 75 offered as proof of intellectual disability. The Court held both claims untimely and procedurally barred, found the intellectual disability claim facially insufficient for lack of alleged current adaptive deficits, and declined to extend Roper/Atkins beyond their Eighth Amendment floors under the state constitution's conformity clause.
Key facts
- Kearse was a death-sentenced inmate who filed his sixth successive 3.851 motion and habeas petition while a death warrant was active, raising claims based on a juror's 2026 Facebook post about courtroom officer presence and a post-warrant WAIS-5 IQ score of 75.
- The trial court summarily denied both the successive motion and habeas petition; Kearse appealed, arguing the Facebook post constituted newly discovered evidence of juror bias and the WAIS-5 score proved intellectual disability under Atkins.
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Why it matters
This opinion is a useful reference for capital and postconviction practitioners on how courts treat 'newly discovered' claims tied to updated diagnostic tools (like WAIS-5) and eleventh-hour juror statements under an… — full analysis with a trial
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