IAN MANUEL, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Ian Manuel, sentenced to life imprisonment at age 13 for attempted murder and armed robbery, challenges his conviction claiming ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to object to uncounseled juvenile adjudications used as prior record enhancements. The court affirmed denial of most postconviction relief claims but reversed and remanded the ineffective assistance claim regarding the scoresheet errors.
Manuel may be entitled to relief for ineffective assistance if: (1) counsel knew or should have known the prior juvenile offenses were uncounseled and therefore unscoreable; (2) counsel failed to bring this to the sentencing court's attention; and (3) inclusion of the uncounseled juvenile offenses affected the recommended sentence. The case is remanded for the trial court to determine whether the record conclusively refutes this claim or if an evidentiary hearing is necessary.
[1] A defendant may be entitled to postconviction relief based on ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to challenge the inclusion of uncounseled juvenile adjudicatio…
[2] Failure to object to known guideline scoresheet errors can constitute ineffective assistance of counsel.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“the failure to object to known guideline scoresheet errors could constitute ineffective assistance”
Establishes the legal standard for ineffective assistance claims involving sentencing guideline errors
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceIan Manuel committed attempted murder and armed robbery at age 13. He received a guideline sentence of life in prison. His sentence was substantially …
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PER CURIAM.
Ian Manuel appeals the summary denial of his motion for postconviction relief. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
Several issues are raised in the motion. With the exception of the one discussed herein, all grounds for relief are without merit and the circuit court properly denied relief as to those grounds. We remand for further proceedings regarding one claim that Manuel received ineffective assistance from his trial attorney.
It appears that Manuel was only thirteen years old when he committed the offenses underlying this appeal (attempted murder and armed robbery). Notwithstanding his relative youthfulness, Manuel received a guideline sentence of life in prison. He now complains that this extremely severe guideline recommendation was largely the product of uneounseled juvenile adjudications scored as “prior record.” See Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.701(d)(5)(G). Counsel, however, allegedly failed to challenge any of these convictions.
We held in Lanier v. State, 478 So. 2d 1184 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985), that the failure to object to known guideline scoresheet errors could constitute ineffective assistance. In Pettway v. State, 502 So. 2d 1353 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987), we specifically dealt with an alleged failure to object to uncounseled prior convictions. Cf. Register v. State, 619 So. 2d 498 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993) (failure to object to uncounseled prior DUI convictions used to enhance present offense to felony status). Accordingly,' in the present case Manuel might be entitled to relief if: (1) counsel knew or should have known that prior juvenile offenses were un-counseled and therefore unseorable; (2) counsel failed to bring this to the sentencing court’s attention; (3) inclusion of the uncoun-seled juvenile offenses affected the recommended sentence. And see Brown v. State, 508 So. 2d 522 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987) (acknowledging that scoresheet error may have affected extent of guideline departure).
After remand the circuit court should reexamine the files and records in this case in an effort to determine whether anything therein conclusively refutes this portion of Manuel’s motion. If so, the court may again deny the motion, attaching to its order whatever documentation it has relied upon. Otherwise, an evidentiary hearing may be necessary. Any party aggrieved by the subsequent action of the trial court must file a timely notice of appeal to obtain further appellate review.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with instructions.
DANAHY, A.C.J., and CAMPBELL and BLUE, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
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Blackshear v. State, 771 So. 2d 1199 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000)…sentence for a second degree murder conviction); Colon v. Irwin, 732 So. 2d 428 (Fla. 5th DCA 1999)(addressing a juvenile’s petition for writ of mandamus to release documents who had been sentenced to life for first degree murder); Manuel v. State, 629 So. 2d 1052 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1993)(remanding to consider whether [*1202] thirteen year old sentenced to life had counsel for prior juvenile convictions included in scoresheet which recommended life sentence for attempted murder and armed robbery). Other states hav…
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Richie v. State, 777 So. 2d 977 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999)…neffective assistance of counsel and entitles a prisoner to postcon-viction relief if counsel failed to object to errors of which counsel knew or should have known and the inclusion of the erroneous points affected the sentence. See Manuel v. State, 629 So. 2d 1052 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993). Thus, a defendant may be entitled to relief from a miscalculated scoresheet even where a downward departure sentence is imposed. See, e.g., Terrell v. State, 668 So. 2d 656 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996) [*978] (reversing for resentencing wh…
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Graham v. State, 982 So. 2d 43 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008)…sentence for a second degree murder conviction); Colon v. Irwin, 732 So. 2d 428 (Fla. 5th DCA 1999)(addressing a juvenile’s petition for writ of mandamus to release documents who had been sentenced to life for first degree murder); Manuel v. State, 629 So. 2d 1052 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1993)(remanding to consider whether thirteen year old sentenced to life had counsel for prior juvenile convictions included in scoresheet which recommended life sentence for attempted murder and armed robbery). Other states have also e…
Previewing 3 of 7 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Brown v. State, 508 So. 2d 522 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987)
- Lanier v. State, 478 So. 2d 1184 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985)
- Stevens v. State, 502 So. 2d 1353 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987)
- Register v. State, 619 So. 2d 498 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993)