CARLTON E. ADDERLY, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Carlton Adderly appealed the dismissal of his habeas corpus petition challenging the sufficiency of the charging document. The Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal, holding that the information adequately alleged all essential elements of the conspiracy charge, including the required intent element.
While a habeas corpus petition is an appropriate vehicle to challenge a charging document that wholly fails to allege essential crime elements, the information here sufficiently alleged all elements of conspiracy. The intent element of conspiracy may be implied, and the information adequately tracked statutory language to provide notice of the charged offense.
[1] A petition for writ of habeas corpus is an appropriate vehicle to raise a claim that a charging document wholly omits essential elements of a crime.
[2] A charging document sufficiently alleges the intent element of conspiracy when it tracks statutory language and provides notice of the offense.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“a petition for writ of habeas corpus is an appropriate vehicle in which to raise a claim that the charging document wholly omits to allege one or more of the essential elements of the crime and therefore fails to charge a crime”
Establishes the proper use of habeas corpus to challenge deficient charging documents
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAdderly filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus raising a claim that the charging document (information) failed to allege one or more essential ele…
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We affirm this appeal of an order dismissing the appellant’s petition for writ of habeas corpus.
It is true, as he asserts with respect to his first ground for relief, that a petition for writ of habeas corpus is an appropriate vehicle in which to raise a claim that the charging document wholly omits to allege one or more of the essential elements of the crime and therefore fails to charge a crime. See State v. Gray, 435 So.2d 816, 818 (Fla.1983) (“Since a conviction cannot rest upon such an indictment or information, the complete failure of an accusatory instrument to charge a crime is a defect that can be raised at any time-before trial, after trial, on appeal, or by habeas corpus.”). However, we conclude that the elements were sufficiently alleged, noting specifically that the intent element of conspiracy may be implied. See State v. Adkins, 553 So.2d 294, 296-97 (Fla. 1st DCA *851989). The information in this case sufficiently tracked the statutory language to give defendant notice of the charged offense. Compare Price v. State, 995 So.2d 401, 405-06 (Fla.2008); Jacques v. State, 1 So.3d 1112 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009).
While the trial court should have denied ground one of the petition rather than dismissing it, remand for such an order would be a waste of judicial resources. See generally Thompson v. State, 945 So.2d 627 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006) (affirming dismissal of rule 8.800(a) motion that should have been denied on the merits); Richardson v. State, 918 So.2d 999 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006) (refusing to remand for the entry of an order changing the disposition from denial to dismissal).
Affirmed.
GROSS, C.J., MAY and CIKLIN, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- State v. Gray, 435 So. 2d 816 (Fla. 1983)
- Richardson v. State, 918 So. 2d 999 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006)
- Price v. State, 995 So. 2d 401 (Fla. 2008)
- Thompson v. State, 945 So. 2d 627 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006)
- State v. Adkins, 553 So. 2d 294 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989)
- Jeanson Jacques v. State, 1 So. 3d 1112 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009)