STEPHEN WILLIAM MORRIS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Morris appeals the denial of post-conviction relief under Florida's Rule 1.850, claiming he was not advised of the victim's identity or the source of the stolen property, thereby preventing proper defense. The court holds that Morris's voluntary guilty plea cured all non-jurisdictional defects, making summary denial of his motion proper.
Morris's voluntary guilty plea cured all non-jurisdictional defects in the charging document and proceedings, and summary denial of his post-conviction motion was proper. A noncoerced guilty plea eliminates the need for an evidentiary hearing on pre-plea defects when no coercion or suppression of evidence is claimed.
[1] A voluntary and non-coerced guilty plea cures all non-jurisdictional defects preceding the acceptance of the plea.
[2] A defendant who pleads guilty is generally not entitled to an evidentiary hearing on a post-conviction motion alleging defects in the information if the plea was voluntar…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“a noncoerced guilty plea cures all non-jurisdictional defects preceding the acceptance of such guilty plea”
Establishes the controlling legal principle that Morris's voluntary guilty plea eliminated any defects in the charging information or proceedings.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceMorris was charged by information with unlawfully receiving and concealing stolen property (a wallet and credit cards). He initially pleaded not guilt…
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This is an appeal from the denial of a post-conviction motion under Rule 1.850, of the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, 33 F.S.A.
By information, appellant was charged with the crime of unlawfully and feloniously receiving and aiding in the concealment of stolen property, to-wit, a wallet and certain credit cards. He was arraigned in the Criminal Court of Record in and for Orange County, Florida, appeared with his counsel and entered a plea of not guilty. Thereafter he appeared again with his counsel, withdrew his former plea of not guilty, and entered a plea of guilty and waived the taking of testimony. After a pre-sentence investigation, he again appeared with his counsel, and a judgment of conviction and a sentence were entered and imposed.
Essentially, appellant’s position is that he was not advised, either by the information or otherwise, of the name of the person who is alleged to have been the owner of the stolen property or from whom the defendant received the property, so that he could not properly defend; and since the record is silent on these two matters, he was entitled to an evidentiary hearing for the purpose of demonstrating his lack of this knowledge, and thus the summary denial of his motion was error. He does not claim in his motion or his brief that this information was suppressed, could not have been obtained by him under the rules, or that his guilty plea was coerced in any fashion.
It is clear from Brady v. United States, McMann v. Richardson, and Parker v. North Carolina, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 1441, 1458, 397 U.S. 742, 759, 790, 25 L.Ed.2d 747, 763, 785, that a noncoerced guilty plea cures all non-jurisdictional defects preceding the acceptance of such guilty plea. More recently this philosophy has been fully reviewed and confirmed in North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25, 91 S.Ct. 160, 27 L.Ed.2d 162; and we suggest a study of this opinion in *705all Rule 1.850 situations where there has been a guilty plea.
As shown by the record sent here by the appellant, at no point did he move for a bill of particulars, nor offer to exchange any witness list, nor did he attempt to obtain a list of the state’s witnesses. Throughout, he had assistance and advice of counsel, and the record reveals no attempt by the State to conceal or suppress any evidence. The voluntary plea of guilty cured all non-jurisdictional defects, whether in the form of the information, the arraignment, or the subsequent plea and sentence.
The judgment below is affirmed.
WALDEN and MAGER, JJ., concur.
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Citator
Cited By
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Brandt v. State, 254 So. 2d 369 (Fla. 3d DCA 1971)…[*370] PER CURIAM. Affirmed. Morris v. State, Fla.App.1971, 255 So. 2d 704; Ward v. State, Fla.App.1970, 236 So. 2d 187; Steinhauser v. State, Fla.App.1969, 228 So. 2d 446; Manning v. State, Fla.App.1967, 203 So. 2d 360; and Hines v. State, Fla.App.1967, 195 So. 2d 605.…
Authorities Cited
- Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742 (U.S. 1970)
- North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (U.S. 1970)