ERNESTO GONZALES, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1997-04-16
No. 96-3250
STONE and POLEN, JJ., concur.
691 So. 2d 602 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1997) Negative Treatment
Cited by 19 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

Ernesto Gonzales appeals the summary denial of his post-conviction motion claiming ineffective assistance of counsel because his trial counsel advised him to reject a five-year plea offer and proceed to jury trial, resulting in convictions on all counts and a ten-year sentence. The court affirmed, holding that counsel's recommendation to go to trial constitutes a tactical or strategic decision not subject to ineffective assistance review.


Holding

The court held that counsel's recommendation regarding whether to accept a plea offer or proceed to trial is a tactical or strategic decision that cannot form the basis for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, as such decisions are not subject to an objective standard of reasonableness.


Headnotes

[1] A defendant claiming ineffective assistance of counsel must demonstrate that counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness.

[2] Tactical or strategic decisions made by counsel do not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel.

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Key Quotes

“Tactical or strategic decisions of counsel do not constitute ineffective assistance.”

Establishes the fundamental principle that counsel's trial strategy choices are not subject to ineffective assistance claims.

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Facts & Procedural History

Gonzales was convicted of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest with violence, and resisting arrest without violence after…

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Opinion of the Court
KLEIN, Judge.

KLEIN, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest with violence, and resisting arrest without violence, as a result of commanding his dog to attack a sheriffs deputy. He was sentenced as a habitual offender to ten years imprisonment on each count to run concurrently. His direct appeal was affirmed, and he then filed a rule 3.850 motion seeking post-conviction relief because his counsel was ineffective in advising him to reject the plea bargain offer of five years. His motion alleged in that regard:

Trial counsel advised the defendant to reject the state’s plea bargain offer of (5) years, and that the defendant should proceed to a jury trial. Counsel informed the defendant that she would win the ease and that there was no sense in accepting the state’s plea offer of (5) years. This resulted in prejudice to the defendant, as he was convicted on all charges at jury trial. Defendant asserts that, but for counsel’s erroneous advice, he would have accepted the state’s offer of (5) years incarceration and would not have gone to a jury trial.

The trial court summarily denied his motion, and he appeals. We affirm.

Courts in Florida, as well as other jurisdictions, have uniformly held that failure of trial counsel to correctly communicate a plea bargain may constitute ineffective assistance of counsel. Young v. State, 608 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992), and cases cited therein. In reversing a summary denial of Young’s rule 3.850 motion, the court outlined what he would have to establish in order to be entitled to relief:

Appellant must prove his counsel failed to communicate a plea offer or misinformed him concerning the penalty he faced, that had he been correctly advised he would have accepted the plea offer, and that his acceptance of the state’s plea offer would have resulted in a lesser sentence.

Id. at 113 (footnotes omitted).

Appellant in the present case does not claim that he was not told about the plea offer, or that he was misadvised about his possible sentence. He alleges only that his counsel was ineffective because she recommended that he go to trial. Our research does not reveal any case from Florida, or any other jurisdiction, in which post-conviction relief was granted under these circumstances.

In Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), the Supreme Court, noting that even the best criminal defense lawyers do not necessarily agree on how to defend a particular client, held that a defendant claiming ineffective assistance of counsel must demonstrate that counsel fell below an “objective” standard of reasonableness. Id at 688, 104 S.Ct. at 2064-65. Tactical or strategic decisions of counsel do not constitute ineffective assistance. Gonzalez v. State, 579 So. 2d 145 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991); Marshall v. State, 606 So. 2d 500 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992). See also Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. at 2065.

Just as good lawyers can disagree on trial tactics, they can also disagree on whether to advise a client to go to trial. One reason why there can be such wide disagreement is the lack of predictability as to what a jury in a given case will do. A jury can decide to acquit a defendant whom it knows is guilty, and that decision is not subject to review. A jury can also find a defendant guilty of a lesser included offense, when the evidence shows that the defendant committed only the greater offense, and not the lesser. Predicting results in criminal cases is thus much more difficult than in civil cases, where the absence of evidence to support findings of fact is subject to review by the trial judge as well as an appellate court.

We do not, therefore, believe that the allegation of ineffective assistance of counsel in this case is capable of being evaluated by any “objective” standard of reasonableness as contemplated by Strickland. It was, rather, a tactical or strategic decision, which cannot be the basis of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. Accordingly, even if appellant could prove his allegation, it would not entitle him to relief.

We have reviewed appellant’s other claims and find them to be without merit. We therefore affirm.

STONE and POLEN, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By (18 total)

  • Cottle v. State, 733 So. 2d 963 (Fla. 1999)
    …in a lesser sentence. See Young v. State, 608 So. 2d 111, 113 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992) (citing United States ex rel. Caruso v. Zelinsky, 689 F. 2d 435, 437 (3d Cir. 1982)); accord Rosa v. State, 712 So. 2d 414, 415 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998); Gonzales v. State, 691 So. 2d 602, 603 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997); Van Dyke v. State, 697 So. 2d 1015, 1015 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997); Seymore v. State, 693 So. 2d 647, 647 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997); Lee v. State, 677 So. 2d 312, 313 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996); Steel v. State, 684 So. 2d 290, 291-92 (Fla. 4t…
  • Morgan v. State, 991 So. 2d 835 (Fla. 2008)
    …ecause I conclude that the majority is correct in affirming the trial court’s denial of postconviction relief, but I do not agree with the majority in its failing to approve the Fourth District Court of Appeal’s decision in Gonzales v. [*842] State, 691 So. 2d 602 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997). I would approve Gonzales and Dines v. State, 909 So. 2d 521 (Fla. 2d DCA 2005). Gonzales and Dines deal with the precise issue that is involved in this case, whether the allegation that trial counsel advised the defendant th…
    1 / 2
  • Cabrera v. State, 766 So. 2d 1131 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000)
    ….2d 83, 84 (1982)). Clearly there were problems with the defense based on the facts in this case.. To some extent, a jury is a wild card and there is a tremendous “lack of predictability as to what a jury in a given case will do.” Gonzales v. State, 691 So. 2d 602, 603 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997). In the absence of another viable defense, however, we conclude that the failure to pursue the entrapment defense constituted ineffective assistance of counsel because “defense counsel, by [her] substandard performance, depr…

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