EDDIE LARRY HOLLAND
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA
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A motion for postconviction relief raising failure to call an available alibi witness is facially sufficient and requires an evidentiary hearing where the defendant identifies the witness, specifies the testimony's content, alleges availability, and alleges prejudice.
[1] A postconviction motion for ineffective assistance of counsel based on counsel's failure to call an available alibi witness is facially sufficient if it identifies the wi…
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“the mere existence of evidence of guilt is insufficient to conclusively rebut a claim of ineffectiveness in failing to present evidence of innocence in the form of known and available alibi witnesses.”
Court's statement regarding the standard for evaluating prejudice in alibi witness cases.
Eddie Larry Holland was convicted of attempted murder based on eyewitness testimony. Holland sought postconviction relief through a rule 3.850 motion,…
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Appeal of order denying rule 3.850 motion from the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County; Caroline C. Shepherd, Judge; L.T. Case No. 50-2017-CF-007040-AXXX-WB.
Gregg S. Lerman of Gregg S. Lerman, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Paul Patti, III, Senior Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee. PER CURIAM. Appellant appeals the trial court’s summary denial of his motion for postconviction relief, which raised multiple issues of ineffective assistance of counsel. We affirm as to all issues except his ineffective assistance of counsel claim for trial counsel’s failure to investigate and call an alibi witness, appellant’s employer. The motion was facially sufficient as appellant:
(i) identified the witness; (ii) specified the content of [his] testimony; (iii) alleged that [he] was available to testify at trial; and (iv) sufficiently alleged that failure to call [him] to testify resulted in prejudice. Youmans v. State, 222 So. 3d 1, 2 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017). With respect to prejudice, we note that “the mere existence of evidence of guilt is insufficient to conclusively rebut a claim of ineffectiveness in failing to present evidence of innocence in the form of known and available alibi witnesses.” Jacobs v. State, 880 So. 2d 548, 555 (Fla. 2004).
2
McCullough v. State, 247 So. 3d 6, 7 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018).
In this case, appellant alleged that his employer would have testified that appellant was at work on the day of the attempted murder for which appellant was convicted, which would have contradicted the State’s eyewitness testimony. The record is insufficient to support a summary denial as to this issue. We reverse and remand for an evidentiary hearing.
Reversed and remanded. WARNER, DAMOORGIAN and CIKLIN, JJ., concur.
* * * Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Alwin J. Jacobs v. State, 880 So. 2d 548 (Fla. 2004)
- Worthy Moses McCullough v. State, 247 So. 3d 6 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018)
- Jarett Youmans v. State, 222 So. 3d 1 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017)