Whitton v. Dixon · ¶2

A Florida jury convicted petitioner Gary Richard Whitton of murder and sentenced him to death. During his trial, the State called several witnesses, including a jailhouse informant named Jake Ozio. Ozio was a high school student who, on a spring-break trip in Florida, was arrested and jailed for burglary and possession of a short-barrel shotgun. Ozio testified that, while he was incarcerated with Whitton, he overheard Whitton confess to “ `stabb[ing] the bastard.' ” Whitton v. Secretary, Fla. Dept. of Corrections, 2025 WL 1305158, *2 (CA11, May 6, 2025) (per curiam). Ozio also testified that he had no criminal history prior to his spring- break arrest. That last piece of testimony turned out to be false. Ozio's juvenile records—which the State had in its possession at the time—showed that he had previously been charged with “assault with bodily injury against his father, terroristic…

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