EARLENE HIGHSMITH, APPELLANT/PETITIONER(S),
v.
LISA EWING, DIRECTOR OF PROBATION, AND THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE/RESPONDENT(S).
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The court granted a habeas corpus petition and quashed a house arrest with GPS monitoring condition imposed on an incompetent defendant, holding that release conditions must be tailored to the goal of attaining competency and comply with Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.131(b).
A trial court may impose release conditions on an incompetent defendant only if they are appropriate to attain competency and comply with Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.131(b), which requires imposing the least restrictive condition that protects the community, ensures presence at trial, or preserves judicial integrity.
[1] Release conditions imposed on an incompetent defendant must be limited to those necessary to attain competency and must comply with Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.1…
Previewing 1 of 1 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“Once a defendant is found incompetent to stand trial, his treatment is directed towards achieving competency to stand trial.”
Vasquez v. State, establishing that competency restoration is the exclusive purpose of pretrial jurisdiction over incompetent defendants.
An incompetent defendant was placed on house arrest with GPS monitoring as a release condition by the trial court.…
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The petitioner's petition for writ of habeas corpus is granted. The portion of the trial court's order that places the petitioner on house arrest with GPS monitoring is quashed. The trial court may exercise its discretion to impose appropriate release conditions consistent with the goal of attaining competency for the petitioner and subject to the limitations of Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.131 (b). See Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.131 (h) ("If the defendant applies to be admitted to bail after recommitment, the court that recommitted the defendant shall determine conditions of release, if any, subject to the limitations of (b) above."); Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.131(b) ("The judicial officer shall impose the first of the following conditions of release that will reasonably protect the community from risk of physical harm to persons, assure the presence of the accused at trial, or assure the integrity of the judicial process; or, if no single condition gives that assurance, shall impose any combination of the following conditions"); Vasquez v. State, 496 So. 2d 818, 820 (Fla. 1986) ("Once a defendant is found incompetent to stand trial, his treatment is directed towards achieving competency to stand trial."); Gonzalez v. State, 15 So. 3d 37, 40 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009) (holding that "the single purpose warranting a pretrial exercise of jurisdiction over an incompetent defendant" is "restoring competency for trial.").
SILBERMAN, KELLY, and LUCAS, JJ., Concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Gonzalez v. State, 15 So. 3d 37 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009)
- Vasquez v. State, 496 So. 2d 818 (Fla. 1986)