JEFFREY VALENCIA, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Jeffrey Valencia appealed the denial of his Rule 3.850 postconviction relief motion as untimely. The court affirmed, holding that Valencia failed to establish he timely delivered the motion to prison authorities within the two-year deadline, lacking the necessary documentation required under the 'mailbox rule.'
The court held that Valencia failed to satisfy the requirements of the mailbox rule and the motion was properly denied as untimely. The mailbox rule requires either affidavits and documentation attesting to timely delivery to prison officials or evidence on the face of the pleading establishing timely delivery, neither of which Valencia provided.
[1] A motion for postconviction relief is untimely if filed beyond the statutory period, absent proof of timely delivery to prison authorities under the mailbox rule.
[2] The mailbox rule, deeming a filing timely upon delivery to prison officials, requires evidence substantiating such delivery, such as affidavits or documentation.
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“The 'mailbox' rule, which deems a petition or motion filed upon delivery to the prison officials for mailing, was premised on the availability of the logging of the prisoner's mail.”
Establishes the foundational premise of the mailbox rule and its evidentiary requirements.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceValencia was convicted and claimed he delivered a postconviction relief motion to prison authorities in February 2001, within the two-year filing dead…
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WARNER, J.
Jeffrey Valencia, appellant, appeals an order summarily denying as untimely his Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion for postconviction relief. We affirm.
After his conviction, appellant filed a petition for writ of mandamus to this court claiming in February 2001, he delivered to prison authorities a timely motion for post-conviction relief. He attached a copy of this alleged motion to the writ. Our court denied the petition after the state’s response indicated that the clerk’s office had no record of appellant’s motion.
After we denied the petition, appellant filed another motion for postconviction relief identical to the one attached to his petition for writ of mandamus. The trial court denied the motion as untimely as it was filed beyond the two-year period pro vided in Rule 3.850. Appellant appeals, claiming that because he turned his motion over to prison authorities within the two-year period, it was timely filed within the meaning of Haag v. State, 591 So. 2d 614, 617 (Fla.1992).
Appellant has failed to establish, with any documents or affidavits, that he sent a motion for postconvietion relief to the court on February 28, 2001. He relies solely upon his own self-serving statements that he did so. Moreover, appellant’s motion for postconviction relief filed in October 2002 was not a copy of the one allegedly filed in 2001 but rather was a motion redrawn in 2002, as evidenced in the first line of the motion where it indicates, “Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850(g)(2002 Florida Rules of Court).”1 (Emphasis added). Because appellant apparently did not keep a copy of his alleged 2001 motion, we have no way of substantiating that his 2002 motion was the same motion and raised the same issues as the February 2001 motion.
The “mailbox” rule, which deems a petition or motion filed upon delivery to the prison officials for mailing, was premised on the availability of the logging of the prisoner’s mail. See Haag, 591 So. 2d at 617. The court stated in Haag that “[u]n-less it appears on the face of the pleading that it was timely received by the prison officials, our opinion does not mean that the court must inquire into whether every late-filed pro se petition meets the test of the mailbox rule.” Id. at 617 n. 3. In Doty v. State, 792 So. 2d 1248, 1249 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001), Jones v. State, 785 So. 2d 561, 561 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001), and Bray v. State, 702 So. 2d 302, 302 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997), cases in which an evidentiary hearing was conducted, the defendants attached affidavits and other documents attesting the delivery of their motions to the prison officials. Here there are none, not even the original motion which would show that it was sworn before a prison official. Further, there is nothing on the face of the pleading establishing the motion was timely delivered because appellant’s 2002 motion was not the original pleading. Without more, we conclude the trial court properly denied the motion as untimely.
Affirmed.
STONE, and SHAHOOD, JJ., concur. . In his reply to the state's response, he claims that the October 2002 motion is an "original copy.” That is belied by the reference to the 2002 rules.
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Citator
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Westley v. State, 903 So. 2d 312 (Fla. 2d DCA 2005)…pril 10, 2004, but deemed the date stamped on the motion’s envelope, April 13, 2004, as the filing date because it contained a prison official’s initials, while the date stamped on the motion’s face lacked any initials. Relying on Valencia v. State, 850 So. 2d 607 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003), the trial court further reasoned that West-ley did not provide any documentation or affidavits reflecting that he turned the motion over to prison officials on April 10, 2004. A motion is deemed filed the moment a pro se inmate…
Authorities Cited
- State v. Thurston McCLAIN, 591 So. 2d 614 (Fla. 1992)
- Haag v. State, 591 So. 2d 614 (Fla. 1992)
- Bray v. State, 702 So. 2d 302 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997)
- Jones v. State, 785 So. 2d 561 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001)
- Cameron v. State, 792 So. 2d 1248 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001)