JOHNNY BO PRICE, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1986-02-20
No. BH-155
THOMPSON and BARFIELD, JJ., concur.
487 So. 2d 34 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1986) Caution
Cited by 36 cases

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Holding

The court held that the motion for post-conviction relief was facially sufficient to warrant an evidentiary hearing on the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.


Facts & Procedural History

Appellant was charged with armed robbery and kidnapping after consuming significant amounts of alcohol and marijuana. He alleged his counsel failed to…

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Opinion of the Court
ZEHMER, Judge.

ZEHMER, Judge.

Appellant filed a motion for post-conviction relief pursuant to rule 3.850, Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. Specifically, appellant complained that his court-appointed attorney failed to conduct an adequate pretrial investigation of the defense of insanity by reason of intoxication based on appellant’s contention that he had a history of alcoholism and was intoxicated at the time of the offenses. The trial court summarily denied the motion.

Appellant was charged with armed robbery and kidnapping. The record shows that he consumed approximately one-half quart of whiskey and smoked marijuana shortly before the offenses occurred and that alcohol consumption continued during the criminal episode. We note that this constitutes an even greater use of intoxicants than was present in Gardner v. State, 480 So. 2d 91 (Fla.1985). In Gardner the Supreme Court held that a defendant charged with specific intent crimes is entitled to a jury instruction on voluntary in toxication when there is evidence of the use of intoxicants and the defendant is intoxicated at the time of the offense.

Appellant has alleged that he informed his counsel about his long history of chronic alcoholism which resulted in his hospitalization and treatment for alcoholism and alcohol-induced schizophrenia. Nonetheless, the only defense which counsel chose to raise was mistaken identity, hardly a meaningful choice, given the testimony of the victim and a codefendant.

We conclude that the motion is sufficient on its face to warrant an evidentiary hearing under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), and we remand this case to the trial court pursuant to rule 3.850(f), Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure.

REVERSED and REMANDED.

THOMPSON and BARFIELD, JJ., concur.

Other
ZEHMER, Judge.

ZEHMER, Judge.

The State has filed a motion for rehearing or clarification raising two concerns.

First, the State complains that appellant did not file a sworn motion as required by Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 and that the trial court’s order denying the motion should be affirmed on this ground. We agree that the original motion was not sworn; we note, however, that appellant attempted to cure this defect on rehearing by incorporating into his motion a properly sworn affidavit supporting the grounds of his motion. Although the record before us contains no indication that the trial court ruled on the motion for rehearing or even considered the affidavit after it was filed, we have elected to treat the affidavit as sufficient to comply with rule 3.850, thereby permitting us to consider the facial sufficiency of the motion to allege a legal basis for relief. To do otherwise would waste valuable appellate court time.

Next, the State complains that we should not direct that the trial court hold an evidentiary hearing, but should leave such decision to the discretion of the trial court. This contention is based on the recent amendment to rule 3.850 which requires the trial court to order the state’s attorney to appear and answer the motion unless the motion and files “conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief.” Finding merit in this contention, we modify our opinion to require that the case be remanded for further proceedings under rule 3.850 consistent with our holding that the motion and record on appeal, in the absence of controverting matters made known by the state through its answer or in an evidentiary hearing, are sufficient to warrant the granting of relief.

With this clarification, the motion for rehearing is DENIED.

THOMPSON and BARFIELD, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By (18 total)

  • Grosvenor v. State, 874 So. 2d 1176 (Fla. 2004)
    …la. 4th DCA 2000), or Mason v. State, 742 So. 2d 370 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999). Cousino has no analysis of this issue but merely adopts the view of the First District. The lineage of the First District’s decision on this issue is traced to Price v. State, 487 So. 2d 34 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986). Price, in turn, held only that the motion in that case was sufficient to warrant an evidentiary hearing. None of the cases from the First District give effect to the plain statement in Hill that the “ ‘prejudice’ inquiry will d…
  • Toler v. State, 493 So. 2d 489 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986)
    …We agree with the state’s contention in its motion for rehearing that our opinion’s direction to the trial court to conduct an evidentiary hearing should be modified, as in Price v. State, 487 So. 2d 34 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986) (on Motion for Rehearing), so that, instead, the trial court is directed to conduct further proceedings in accordance with the provisions of Fla.R.Cr.P. 3.850, as amended in 1984. The 1984 amendment requires that, unless the mot…
  • LaMarr Love v. State, 814 So. 2d 475 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002)
    …ot sworn to. However, the factual allegations were contained in a properly sworn affidavit which Appellant attached to his motion. An unsworn motion may be cured by a properly sworn affidavit supporting the grounds of the motion. See Price v. State, 487 So. 2d 34, 35 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986) (on rehearing). Second, the court explained that the motion was time-barred. With respect to Appellant’s claim that his motion was timely pursuant to Wood, the trial court explained that the claims were not cognizable under…

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