RALPH R. MAGNA, PETITIONER,
v.
RICHARD L. DUGGER, SECRETARY, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, RESPONDENT
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Ralph Magna petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus challenging his 1976 first-degree murder conviction on grounds of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel and denial of due process. The court denied the petition, finding that Magna failed to preserve his arguments at trial and could not demonstrate prejudice from appellate counsel's failure to raise unpreserved claims.
The court held that appellate counsel cannot be deemed ineffective for failing to raise issues that were not preserved at trial. Even if the unpreserved arguments could have been raised, Magna failed to demonstrate that the trial court's factual findings regarding voluntariness of the confessions were constitutionally erroneous or that the outcome would have changed.
[1] Appellate counsel cannot be deemed ineffective for failing to raise an issue that was not preserved at trial.
[2] A claim of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel cannot be based on an argument that was not made in the trial court and therefore could not have been appealed.
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“Appellate counsel cannot be deemed ineffective for not raising an issue which was not preserved at trial.”
Establishes the fundamental principle that unpreserved issues cannot form the basis of an ineffective assistance of appellate counsel claim.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceMagna was convicted of first-degree murder in 1976. While arrested on burglary charges in Illinois about one year after the murder, he made spontaneou…
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PER CURIAM.
This is a petition for writ of habeas corpus alleging ineffective assistance of appellate counsel and denial of due process rights, stemming from the same circumstances.
Petitioner was convicted in 1976 of first degree murder, and this court affirmed his conviction in Magna v. State, 350 So. 2d 1088 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). The issue in the appeal was whether the trial court had erred in excluding certain defense testimony as hearsay. The suppression of petitioner’s confessions was raised before trial, but not in the appeal.
Petitioner was arrested on burglary charges in Illinois, about one year after the murder in question, and he told the police officer he was also wanted in Florida. He made a spontaneous statement that he had killed someone and wanted to talk about it. He was then taken to an interview room, advised of his rights. He then gave an oral statement that he killed a girl in Florida, and reiterated the statement to a court reporter, who typed it up for his signature. Later that day, he was again advised of his rights and gave a statement. He subsequently repeated the confession in a telephone call.
Defense counsel at the trial court level argued that these statements were made out of fear, in exchange for a promise and were the result of physical coercion. Also, the motion to suppress filed by defense counsel alleged violation of Miranda rights and defendant’s privilege against self-incrimination. Petitioner now challenges the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress, based on claims that were not made or preserved in the trial court and therefore not raised on direct appeal. He now argues that when his first recorded statement was made, he said that he did not want to add anything further to that statement until he saw his wife. This was never argued specifically before. He is making a new argument which could not have been appealed because it was not made in the trial court, and thus cannot be the basis of an ineffectiveness claim. Appellate counsel cannot be deemed ineffective for not raising an issue which was not preserved at trial. Ruffin v. Wainwright, 461 So. 2d 109 (Fla.1984). Petitioner cites Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 104, 96 S.Ct. 321, 326, 46 L.Ed.2d 313 (1975). However, we do not consider that case to be controlling.
In any event, the petitioner seems only to have said at one point that he did not want to add anything further to a statement he had already completed until he saw his wife. Even if viewed as a request to cut off questioning, it would not appear to invalidate the other statements appellant gave voluntarily. Thus even if petitioner’s counsel had been able to raise the issue as to his statements, petitioner has failed to show that it would have changed the outcome of his case and ineffectiveness of appellate counsel has not been shown. Mills v. State, 507 So. 2d 602 (Fla.1987).
Petitioner uses the same challenge as the basis for his second, interrelated claim. This argument is similarly without merit. Petitioner repeats his earlier claims and adds that his confessions were coerced, based on deprivations of the access to his wife, to food, adequate cell conditions, etc. This was raised in essence in the motion to suppress his confessions argued in the trial court, and after hearing all of the conflicting evidence, the trial court ruled on the facts that the confessions were all voluntary. Petitioner has failed to show how this ruling resulted in deprivation of his constitutional rights.
The petition is, therefore, denied.
DOWNEY, GUNTHER and STONE, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96 (U.S. 1975)
- Ruffin v. Louie L. Wainwright, 461 So. 2d 109 (Fla. 1984)
- Mills v. State, 507 So. 2d 602 (Fla. 1987)
- Magna v. State, 350 So. 2d 1088 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977)