DAVID JOHNSON, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1983-11-03
No. AP-381
MILLS and SHIVERS, JJ., concur.
440 So. 2d 464 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1983) Caution
Cited by 6 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

David Johnson, convicted of burglary and grand theft, appealed claiming that a prior adjudication of incompetency to stand trial and not guilty by reason of insanity two years earlier created a presumption of ongoing incompetency that prevented his trial and conviction. The Florida appellate court affirmed the conviction, holding that the prior incompetency adjudication did not create a presumption of continuing incompetency because it was limited in scope and Johnson failed to raise competency objections at trial.


Holding

The prior adjudication of incompetency does not create a presumption of continuing incompetency because: (1) an adjudication of incompetency to stand trial does not operate as an adjudication of incompetency for other purposes unless specifically set forth in the court order, and (2) Johnson failed to timely raise any objection on grounds of incompetency during trial.


Headnotes

[1] An adjudication of incompetency to stand trial, without specific language in the court order to that effect, does not create a presumption of continuing incompetency for…

[2] A prior adjudication of incompetency to stand trial and subsequent acquittal by reason of insanity does not necessitate a judicial hearing to restore competency before a…

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“An adjudication of incompetency to stand trial shall not operate as an adjudication of incompetency ... for any other purpose unless specifically set forth in the court order.”

Establishes that the scope of an incompetency adjudication is limited to its express terms and does not create a continuing presumption unless the order specifically provides otherwise.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

In 1980, Johnson was adjudicated incompetent to stand trial and committed for hospitalization. Four months later, in April 1981, experts reported he w…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
ZEHMER, Judge.

ZEHMER, Judge.

Appellant, David Johnson, the defendant below, was convicted of burglary of a dwelling and grand theft of a firearm and other property. He seeks reversal of his conviction and a new trial on grounds that, in another criminal case some two years before, he had been adjudicated incompetent to stand trial and found not guilty by reason of insanity and his competency had not been restored in a judicial proceeding. We reject defendant’s argument and affirm.

In 1980, defendant was charged with burglary in the circuit court for Clay County, Florida. After a hearing on the question of his competency to stand trial, the court entered an order declaring defendant incompetent and committing him for involuntary hospitalization pursuant to Section 916.13, Florida Statutes. Approximately four months later, in April 1981, the court received a report of the appointed experts that defendant was then capable of standing trial but that he had been insane at the time of the commission of the alleged offense. At a hearing on defendant’s motion, the court entered judgment of acquittal by reason of insanity and ordered defendant discharged and released from custody.

After being charged in 1982 with the offense of burglary here under review, defendant entered a plea of not guilty and, referring to the above orders, moved, pursuant to Rule 3.210, Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, for the appointment of two experts to examine him and determine his mental condition. The court thereupon appointed two experts to examine defendant, who did so and reported that defendant was competent to stand trial and was sane at the time of the commission of the alleged offenses. The report was received and filed by the court, and no further hearing was held on the matter. Thereafter, the case went to trial and defendant did not raise any question concerning his mental competency. The jury found defendant guilty as charged, and the court entered the judgment and sentence here appealed.

Defendant contends that, by reason of his previous adjudication of incompetency to stand trial and adjudication of not guilty by reason of insanity, there is a legal presumption that he continues to be incompetent and, thus, cannot be tried and convicted of' the offenses charged until his competency has been restored in a judicial hearing, citing Eason v. State, 421 So. 2d 35 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982), and Alexander v. State, 380 So. 2d 1188 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980). Accordingly, defendant argues, his conviction and sentence must be set aside and the case remanded for a new trial. We disagree for two reasons.

In the first place, the presumption relied upon by defendant contemplates an adjudication of legal incompetency in a proceeding held for that purpose. The presumption does not become operative by reason of an order adjudicating defendant incompetent to stand trial and committing him to a hospital for a limited period of time for treatment. This is made quite explicit by the provisions of Section 916.13, Florida Statutes, under which defendant was originally committed in 1980:

An adjudication of incompetency to stand trial shall not operate as an adjudication of incompetency ... for any other purpose unless specifically set forth in the court order.1

The order relied upon by defendant in this case did not specify such additional purpose and, thus, was not the type of adjudication of incompetency that would give rise to the presumption. See, King v. State, 387 So. 2d 463 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980).

In the second place, defendant failed to timely raise any objection on the ground of incompetency during trial. At sentencing, defense counsel expressly argued to the court that he was not contending the defendant was insane but, rather, that he was suffering from diminished capacity, and counsel urged the court to consider that as a mitigating factor in passing sentence.

The judgment is AFFIRMED.

MILLS and SHIVERS, JJ., concur. . The predecessor to Section 916.13, Florida Statutes, was Section 925.10(2), Florida Statutes (1979), which similarly provided:

An adjudication of incompetency to stand trial shall not operate as in adjudication of incompetency for purposes of civil proceedings unless such adjudication is specifically set forth in the order, in which case a guardian of the person shall be appointed.

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Eierle v. State, 458 So. 2d 442 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984)
    …reason of insanity, as here, creates a presumption of insanity as to criminal acts committed by the defendant after the entry of such an adjudication; on the contrary, at least one Florida case appears to have rejected such a rule. Johnson v. State, 440 So. 2d 464 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983). The defendant - Eierle cites Wells v. State, 98 So. 2d 795 (Fla.1957) and Corbin v. State, 129 Fla. 421, 176 So. 435 (1937), as authority for this asserted proposition of law, but both of these cases involved mental incompetency…
  • Delisa v. State, 910 So. 2d 418 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005)
    …t has been found incompetent to proceed at trial, that defendant is presumed to remain incompetent until a court enters an order finding him competent. See Blue v. State, 837 So. 2d 541, 543 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003). The State relies on Johnson v. State, 440 So. 2d 464 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983), where the court concluded that the defendant, adjudicated incompetent in a prior criminal proceeding, was not presumptively incompetent to participate in a subsequent criminal proceeding. Johnson, however, is factually distingui…
  • Price v. Louie L. Wainwright and Jim Smith, 759 F.2d 1549 (11th Cir. 1985)
    …es that such an adjudication does not give rise to the presumption. Thus, Florida courts have clearly held that at subsequent competency hearings in criminal trials the burden of proving incompetency remains with the defendant. See Johnson v. State, 440 So. 2d 464, 465 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1983), pet. for rev. denied, 449 So. 2d 264 (Fla.1984); King v. State, 387 So. 2d 463 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App. 1980); Flowers v. State, 353 So. 2d 1259, 1260 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1978); cf. Eierle v. State, 458 So. 2d 442, 444 (Fla.Dist.C…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw