WILLIE PETTY, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 2009-01-30
No. 1D07-4976
LEWIS and THOMAS, JJ., and LAWRENCE, JR., L. ARTHUR, Senior Judge, concur.
1 So. 3d 1183 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2009)

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 held that the trial court's failure to conduct an adequate Faretta inquiry before allowing the appellant to represent himself constitutes per se reversible error.


Facts & Procedural History

The appellant was convicted of lewd and lascivious battery and unlawful sexual activity. He challenges his convictions, arguing the trial court erred …

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
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

The appellant challenges his convictions and sentences for lewd and lascivious battery and unlawful sexual activity. He alleges that the trial court erred by failing to conduct an adequate Faretta 1 inquiry prior to allowing him to represent himself at trial. We agree and reverse.

Here, although the record indicates that the trial court adequately expressed to appellant the dangers of self-representation, the Faretta inquiry was inadequate because the trial court failed to inquire as to the extent of appellant’s education, his ability to read or write, his past experience with criminal proceedings, or his mental and physical condition. Brown v. State, 971 So.2d 270, 271 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008) (“Mthough the record in the present case demonstrates that the appellant was sufficiently apprised of the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation, it discloses no inquiry into the appellant’s age, education, mental condition, physical condition, past experience with criminal proceedings, or other factors bearing upon his capacity to waive his constitutional right to counsel”); Flowers v. State, 976 So.2d 665 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008) (Faretta inquiry inadequate where trial court “did not advise the defendant of the advantages of representation by counsel nor ... inquire into the defendant’s age, education, ability to read and write, or any mental or physical conditions”). As such, the trial court committed per se reversible error. See Wilson v. State, 947 So.2d 1225 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007). Thus, the appellant’s convictions are REVERSED and the cause is REMANDED for a new trial.

LEWIS and THOMAS, JJ., and LAWRENCE, JR., L. ARTHUR, Senior Judge, concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw