BRECKENRIDGE
v.
MCNEIL, STATE OF FLORIDA
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A habeas corpus petition challenging the legality of a defendant's detention in Leon County. The court discharged the writ after finding the defendant failed to comply with statutory pretrial release requirements, rendering the detention lawful.
The court discharged the habeas writ because the petitioner failed to satisfy statutory requirements for nonmonetary release. The detention could not be deemed illegal where the petitioner did not comply with procedural prerequisites for obtaining such release.
[1] A writ of habeas corpus will be discharged when the respondent sheriff has justified the legality of the petitioner's detention.
[2] A person is not entitled to release on nonmonetary conditions unless a pretrial release service certifies to the court that it has investigated specified factors concerni…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“No person shall be released on nonmonetary conditions under the supervision of a pretrial release service, unless the service certifies to the court that it has investigated or otherwise verified”
Establishes the statutory requirement that petitioner failed to meet; shows what documentation was necessary for the relief sought.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe petitioner sought supervised pretrial release on nonmonetary conditions. The circuit court found the pretrial information form incomplete, lacking…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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PER CURIAM.
Having reviewed the petition and Respondent’s return, the Court discharges the writ and remands Petitioner to the custody of Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil. No costs or charges are awarded to either party.
BILBREY and KELSEY, JJ., concur; RAY, J., concurs with opinion.
No Motions for Rehearing will be permitted.
RAY, J., concurring.
We issued the writ in this case so the sheriff could justify the legality of the petitioner’s detention. Which he now has done.
Dispositive in my view is the petitioner’s failure to do his part to show entitlement to the relief he requested from the circuit court—supervised pretrial release on nonmonetary conditions. In relevant part, the pretrial detention and release statute provides that:
(b) No person shall be released on nonmonetary conditions under the supervision of a pretrial release service, unless the service certifies to the court that it has investigated or otherwise verified:
1. The circumstances of the accused’s family, employment, financial resources, character, mental condition, and length of residence in the community;
2. The accused’s record of convictions, of appearances at court proceedings, of flight to avoid prosecution, or of failure to appear at court proceedings; and
3. Other facts necessary to assist the court in its determination of the indigency of the accused and whether she or he should be released under the supervision of the service.
§ 907.041(3)(b)1.–3., Fla. Stat. (2023).
Here, the circuit court found that the pretrial information form was incomplete: “It lacked a certification, it indicated the Defendant did not consent to the interview due to time constraints,
and it was wholly missing half of the sections required by the statute . . . .” The court then noted that the petitioner had twenty-three days to complete the form before the hearing and failed to “even address the statute or the requirement to have a certified response from the pretrial release office, and did not subpoena the pretrial release office representative to testify at the hearing.” Given the severity of the charges, the court concluded that it “does not see how the Defendant can be released on nonmonetary conditions with no supervision from the pretrial release office.”
The petitioner does not dispute any of these findings by the circuit court or its textual interpretation of these statutory requirements. Yet he sought relief that the circuit court simply could not grant.
As this matter is presently postured, the petitioner’s detention cannot be illegal. I thus agree with the decision to discharge the writ and remand the petitioner to the custody of Sheriff McNeil.
Jerry Edwards and Daniel Tilley, ACLU Foundation of Florida, Miami; and Benjamin Stevenson, ACLU Foundation of Florida, Pensacola Beach; and John Knowles, First Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Petitioner. Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Zachary Lawton, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Respondent State of Florida. No appearance for Respondent Walt McNeil.