IN RE AMENDMENT TO FLORIDA RULES OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CAPITAL POSTCONVICTION PUBLIC RECORDS PRODUCTION-RULE 3.852

Fla. | 1997-10-20
No. 87688
KOGAN, C.J., and OVERTON, GRIMES, HARDING and ANSTEAD, JJ., concur., SHAW, J., concurs in result only., WELLS, J., concurs with an opinion.
700 So. 2d 680 Florida Supreme Court (1997) Positive Treatment
Cited by 10 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.


Holding

The court concurs that tolling is required due to reorganization but mandates that progress plans be developed for post-conviction cases.


Headnotes

[1] A court may toll the time for postconviction defendants under Rule 3.852 to allow for the transition of the Capital Collateral Representative office to regional offices a…

[2] A court may grant a tolling of Rule 3.852 pending the filing of a detailed inventory and projected schedule for processing postconviction cases by regional offices.

Previewing 2 of 5 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

Facts & Procedural History

The opinion addresses the status of post-conviction cases for defendants, noting significant delays and postponements. Many defendants have been in po…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court

The offices of the Capital Collateral Representative (CCR) for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Regions have moved to toll the time under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.852 for the postconviction defendants for each region set forth in the list attached to this order and for the periods stated in such list.

The major bases asserted in the motions are to allow for the transition from a single CCR office to three regional offices and to allow sufficient time to hire the necessary lawyers to represent death penalty defendants in each of the regional offices in order to replace lawyers who have recently left the prior CCR office. . , We find that there presently exists a serious problem in both the staffing of the regional offices as well as how pending cases are assigned to ensure that the offices are separate and thereby can avoid the question of conflicts in their representations.

We conclude that we have no choice but to grant a tolling of rule 3.852 until January 15, 1998, for those postconviction defendants on the attached list, pending the filing of a detailed inventory and projected schedule for processing of all of the cases for postconviction defendants for which each region of CCR has responsibility pursuant to chapter 27, Florida Statutes.

Such inventory and schedule shall include not only the posteoilviction defendants whose names appear on the attached list but also all of the posteonvietion defendants for whom the region has filed motions under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851and for other postconviction defendants who are to be represénted by a region of CCR, because by the date of the inventory their direct appeal has become final according to the provisions of rule 3.851 and chapter 27, Florida Statutes.

The inventory and schedule is to provide a realistic expectation of the earliest date upon which an initial 3.851motion (or amended 3.851 motion if a motion was filed in March 1997 with leave to amend) will be filed on behalf of the postcon-viction defendants or if there is a motion already pending which is not within the March 1997 initial motions, when that motion will be ready for a hearing pursuant to rule 3.851(c) or an evidentiary hearing if it had already been determined that an evidentiary hearing is necessary.

We caution the parties that the requested extensions contained in this motion appear to be too long.

It is our belief at this time that any further extensions in the filing under rule 3.852 will be of very limited duration because any such extensions will result in further delays in the filing of 3.851motions.

It is ordered that each regional CCR office file the inventory and schedule before December 30, 1997; that the attorney general may file a response to that plan on or before January 6, 1998; and that this Court will consider the plan and hear this matter in oral argument on January 8,1998.

It is ordered that each regional CCR office file an inventory and plan for the filing of all rule 3.850 petitions and dispositions and disposition of all other pending matters on or before December 30, 1997; that the attorney general may file a response to that plan on or before January 6, 1998; and that this Court will consider the plan and hear this matter in oral argument on January 8,1998.

NORTHERN CAPITAL COLLATERAL REGIONAL COUNSEL Samuel Derrick 90 days Crosley Green 90 days Ronald Heath 90 days Frank Walls 90 days Gary Whitton 90 days Brett Bogle 90 days Curtis Windom 180 days Darryl Barwiek 180 days Mark Geralds 180 days Donald Dillbeck 180 days James Patrick Bonifay 180 days MIDDLE CAPITAL COLLATERAL REGIONAL COUNSEL John Marquard 90 days Patrick Hannon 90 days Alfred Fennie 90 days Derrick Smith 90 days Aileen Wuornos (I) 90 days Aileen Wuornos (II) 90 days George Brown 90 days David Pittman 90 days Charlie Thompson 90 days John Henry (I) 90 days John Henry (II) 90 days Henry Davis 90 days Michael Lockhart 90 days Victor Farr 90 days Anthony Washington 90 days James Dailey 90 days Charles Finney 90 days Guy Gamble 90 days James Hunter 90 days Emanuel Johnson (I) 90 days Emanuel Johnson (II) 90 days Aileen Wuornos (IV) 90 days SOUTHERN CAPITAL COLLATERAL REGIONAL COUNSEL Dwayne Parker 90 days Michael Griffin 90 days Lancelot Armstrong 90 days Henry Garcia 120 days Norberto Pietro 120 days Kenneth Watson 150 days Rodney Lowe 150 days Kenneth Foster 150 days Lloyd-Allen 180 days Robin Archer 180 days KOGAN, C.J., and OVERTON, GRIMES, HARDING and ANSTEAD, JJ., concur. SHAW, J., concurs in result only.

WELLS, J., concurs with an opinion.

Concurrence
WELLS, Justice,

WELLS, Justice,

concurring.

In view of the status of reorganization of CCR, I must concur that a tolling is required. However, it is also my view that at the end of this tolling, the three regions must have developed a plan for each defendant’s case to be substantially and materially progressed during 1998. This progress would preferably be accomplished by CCR staff counsel. However, if the CCR in each region does not conclude that each case can be substantially and materially progressed in 1998 by CCR staff counsel, then I believe it is the responsibility of each regional CCR to find a competent contract counsel who will so progress the case in 1998, enter into a contract with that counsel, and apprise the commission and the legislature of the estimated costs of that contract and its impact on OCR’s budget.

What I see from my review of these lists of defendants are many defendants who already have been in postconviction status for two and three years, and nothing has been done toward adjudicating their posteonviction motion. Additionally, from my review of the quarterly reports from the circuits, many hearings are being postponed because of change of counsel. A complete plan by each region to progress all posteonviction capital cases must be developed. The public, the legislature, and the defendants have a right to know target dates for ending the delays in these cases.

Finally, I believe extensions of time by this Court must cease. More than a year ago, we crafted and adopted Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.852, with specific time periods so that the public records complications of post-conviction motions could be addressed. Through this date, these time periods have not gone into effect for far too many cases because we have repeatedly entered extensions. I recognize the circumstances of the extension requests have appeared to necessitate these extensions. However, in January 1998, a plan with time periods which will be adhered to by counsel and the Court will be the only further extension in which I will concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Johnson v. State, 104 So. 3d 1010 (Fla. 2012)
    …tate, No. SC78,336 (Fla. order filed Jun. 4, 1997) (unpublished order tolling time for filing of Johnson’s amended motion due to financial condition of Office of the Capital Collateral Representative); In re Amendments to Fla. Rule Crim. Pro. 3.852, 700 So. 2d 680, 681 (Fla. 1997) (tolling time for filing Johnson’s postconviction motion for ninety days to allow collateral counsel to transition from a single office to three regional offices); Amendments to Fla. Rules Crim. Pro. 3.851 & 3.850, 719 So. 2d 869, 8…
  • …single office to three regional offices, the three regional offices moved to toll the' time requirements of rule 3.852 for a number of postconviction defendants. In In re Amendment to Fla. R.Crim. P.—Capital Postconviction Public Records Production, 700 So. 2d 680 (Fla.1997), we granted that request, tolling the time requirements required by rule 3.852 through January 15, 1998, for the defendants listed in that order. In the order, we also provided that each regional office was to submit, by December 30, 199…
  • …filing of those motions until January 15, 1998, stating that we would consider those motions after the filing of the inventories and schedules required in In re Amendment to Fla. R.Crim. P. Capital Postconviction Public Records Production—R. 3.852, 700 So. 2d 680 (Fla.1997). Since we issued the order, we have received additional motions from defendants not listed in that order who have also requested that the time limits set forth in rule 3.851 be tolled. On today’s date, we issued an opinion tolling the t…

Previewing 3 of 5 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw