JOSEPH DELUCCA, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Joseph DeLucca appealed the trial court's denial of his Rule 3.850 postconviction motion seeking to withdraw his plea to child neglect and his admission to violating probation. The appellate court affirmed the denial because DeLucca's motion failed to clearly specify the grounds for relief and lacked required allegations, but permitted him to file a sufficient motion within sixty days.
The motion was legally insufficient because it failed to clearly specify the grounds for relief and did not contain the information required by Rule 3.850(c). Generalized allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel or involuntary plea are insufficient; the motion must clearly identify specific grounds and allege that but for counsel's deficiency, the defendant would not have pleaded guilty.
[1] A motion for postconviction relief must clearly specify the grounds upon which relief is sought.
[2] Generalized allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel or that a plea was involuntary are insufficient to warrant postconviction relief.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“A motion for postconviction relief must clearly specify the grounds upon which relief is sought.”
Establishes the mandatory requirement for clear specification of grounds in Rule 3.850 motions
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceDeLucca entered a negotiated plea to child neglect in November 2008 and was placed on probation. In August 2009, he admitted to violating probation ba…
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Joseph DeLucca appeals the trial court’s summary denial of his timely Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion for postconviction relief. Appellant seeks to withdraw his November 10, 2008 plea to child neglect in this ease and his August 12, 2009 admission to violating probation for this charge.1 Through the course of the motion, appellant catalogues a host of matters and implies a variety of claims, such as, that he received ineffective assistance of counsel and that his pleas were involuntary.2 The motion fails to clearly identify specific grounds for relief.
Without ordering a state’s response to the motion, and without attaching any records, the trial court denied the motion explaining simply that “The Defendant entered into a negotiated plea.”
We conclude that the generalized allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel and/or that a plea was involuntary are insufficient. A motion for postconviction relief must clearly specify the grounds upon which relief is sought. See Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.850(a) (setting out the grounds that may be claims for relief in a postconviction motion). Specifying each ground for relief allows the state to respond meaningfully to each of the claims and permits the court to rule on the claims in an orderly manner.
The motion also fails to contain required information and allegations and was legally *166insufficient on this basis as well. The motion does not contain the information required by Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850(c). As to the suggestions of ineffective assistance of counsel, the motion does not allege that, but for the deficiency of counsel (which is not clearly specified in this motion), appellant would not have pleaded and would have proceeded to trial. Poisal v. State, 876 So.2d 1262 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004). See Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 106 S.Ct. 366, 88 L.Ed.2d 203 (1985).
Because the Rule 3.850(b) time limit has now run as to the November 2008 plea, we affirm without prejudice for appellant to file a sufficient motion within sixty days of the mandate issued for this opinion.
WARNER, POLEN and CONNER, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52 (U.S. 1985)
- Poisal v. State, 876 So. 2d 1262 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004)