MANUEL CANO, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 2013-04-24
No. 4D12-2757
STEVENSON, TAYLOR and CONNER, JJ., concur.
112 So. 3d 646 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2013) Caution
Cited by 35 cases

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Synopsis

Manuel Cano appealed the denial of his postconviction motion to withdraw his guilty plea to attempted robbery and assault on a person 65 or older, claiming ineffective assistance of counsel under Padilla v. Kentucky for failure to advise him of immigration consequences. The court affirmed the trial court's summary denial without prejudice, allowing Cano to refile if he can establish the required elements under the newly clarified Padilla standard.


Holding

The court affirmed the summary denial of Cano's motion without prejudice, holding that a movant who received the standard "may" or "could" deportation warning must establish six elements to prevail on a Padilla claim: (1) lawful presence at time of plea; (2) the plea as sole basis for deportation; (3) the law subjected movant to virtually automatic deportation at time of plea; (4) the presumptively mandatory consequence of deportation is clear from the face of the immigration statute; (5) counsel failed to accurately advise about deportation consequences; and (6) had the movant been accurately advised, he would not have entered the plea.


Headnotes

[1] A defendant seeking to withdraw a plea based on ineffective assistance of counsel regarding immigration consequences must demonstrate that counsel failed to accurately ad…

[2] A standard "may" or "could" deportation warning during a plea colloquy is insufficient on its own to refute a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel concerning deport…

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Key Quotes

“an 'equivocal' warning such as this is not on its own sufficient to refute a claim that counsel was ineffective in failing to advise a defendant about 'truly clear' deportation consequences”

Establishes that the standard "could" or "may" warning is insufficient when deportation consequences are truly clear from the immigration statute.

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Facts & Procedural History

Cano negotiated a plea on June 18, 2010 to attempted robbery and assault on a person 65 years of age or older. During the plea colloquy and in the ple…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

We affirm without prejudice the trial court’s summary denial of appellant’s motion for postconviction relief.

In a timely postconviction motion, appellant sought to withdraw his June 18, 2010 negotiated plea to attempted robbery and assault on a person 65 years of age or older. Appellant claimed that, under Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356, 130 S.Ct. 1473, 176 L.Ed.2d 284 (2010), he was entitled to withdraw his plea because his attorney failed to advise him about potential immigration consequences. He alleged that he has a final order of deportation that is “based in large part on these convictions.” He has not provided a copy of the alleged deportation order.

The trial court denied the motion because appellant was advised during the plea colloquy and in the plea form that his plea “could” result in his deportation. The Florida Supreme Court has held that an “equivocal” warning such as this is not on its own sufficient to refute a claim that counsel was ineffective in failing to advise a defendant about “truly clear” deportation consequences. Hernandez v. State, — So.3d -, -, 2012 WL 5869660, 37 Fla. L. Weekly S730,. S731-32 (Fla. Nov. 21, 2012). The standard “could” or “may” warning of rule 3.172(c)(8), however, can refute a claim where the deportation consequences are not “truly clear” from the face of the immigration statute. See id.

Appellant filed his motion, and the court denied it, before the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Hernandez. The trial court denied the motion based on *648this court’s holding in Flores v. State, UJ So.3d 218 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010), which held that the “may” warning of rule 3.172(c)(8) cured the prejudice in all circumstances. The Florida Supreme Court has now abrogated that aspect of Flores. Hernandez, — So.3d at -, 37 Fla. L. Weekly at S732. We conclude that, under the circumstances, appellant should be afforded an opportunity to refile his claim if he can do so in good faith.

Padilla, and the cases applying it in Florida, require a movant to show a number of things in order to be entitled to relief. Appellant’s motion was insufficient for a number of reasons. Because the standard warning will have been given in most cases, we write to clarify what a movant must establish to be entitled to relief in this situation and what appellant must establish should he choose to refile.

Where a movant has received the standard “may” or “could” deportation warning required by rule 3.172(c)(8), to state a claim for relief under Padilla, a movant must establish the following: (1) that the movant was present in the country lawfully at the time of the plea; (2) that the plea at issue is the sole basis for the movant’s deportation; (3) that the law, as it existed at the time of the plea, subjected the movant to “virtually automatic” deportation; (4) that the “presumptively mandatory” consequence of deportation is clear from the face of the immigration statute; (5) that counsel failed to accurately advise the movant about the deportation consequences of the plea; and (6) that, if the movant had been accurately advised, he or she would not have entered the plea. See Ioselli v. State, 4D12-1449, 2013 WL 611781 (Fla. 4th DCA Feb.20, 2013) (citing Forrest v. State, 988 So.2d 38 (Fla. 4th DCA 2008)); Joseph v. State, 107 So.3d 492 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013); Hernandez, — So.3d at -, 37 Fla. L. Weekly at S731-32; Padilla, 130 S.Ct. at 1483.

We affirm the summary denial of appellant’s motion without prejudice for him to file a legally sufficient motion, if he can do so in good faith, within sixty (60) days of our mandate in this case.

Affirmed without prejudice to file a sufficient claim within sixty (60) days.

STEVENSON, TAYLOR and CONNER, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (17 total)

  • Facey v. State, 143 So. 3d 1003 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014)
    …me (as defined in section 924(c) of Title 18”). Here, Facey’s grand theft conviction has not been shown to be an aggravated felony, and automatic deportation has not been shown to be clear from the face of the immigration statute. See Cano v. State, 112 So. 3d 646, 648 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013) (setting forth what a defendant is required to prove in order to be entitled to relief under Padilla where the standard may or could warning has been delivered). Third-degree grand theft does not appear to be an aggravated…
  • Glenroy Blackwood v. State, 217 So. 3d 1146 (Fla. 2d DCA 2017)
    …court denied the motion after concluding that Blackwood had not proven that he was subject to automatic deportation under the federal immigration statute. The postconviction court relied on the test outlined by the Fourth District in Cano v. State, 112 So. 3d 646, 648 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013), which requires a postconviction movant to establish (1) that the movant was present in the country, lawfully at the time of the plea; (2) that the plea at issue is the sole basis for the movant’s deportation;. (3) that the…
  • Balcazar v. State, 116 So. 3d 575 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013)
    …he would not have entered a plea if he had been properly advised by counsel of the immigration consequences. See State v. Burton, 63 So.Sd 854, 855 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011) (citing State v. Green, 944 So. 2d 208, 218 (Fla.2006)); see also Cano v. State, 112 So. 3d 646 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013) (listing the full set of pleading requirements for a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel under Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356, 130 S.Ct. 1473, 176 L.Ed.2d 284 (2010)). Thus the postconviction court should have struck th…

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