CLARENCE LLOYD WHITLOW, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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The court held that a motion to withdraw a guilty plea, when filed after sentencing, should be treated as a motion to vacate sentence under Rule 3.850, and appeals from denials of such motions lie with the District Court of Appeal.
[1] A court may treat a motion to withdraw a guilty plea as a motion to vacate sentence under Rule 3.850 when the practical effect of granting the motion would be to vacate t…
[2] A cause shall not be dismissed because an improper remedy has been sought, and a court may transfer a proceeding to the court having jurisdiction when jurisdiction has be…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligencePetitioner pleaded guilty to robbery in 1970 and was sentenced. Four years later, he moved to withdraw his plea, alleging it was involuntary. The tria…
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McCAIN, Justice:
Petitioner was informed against for robbery in 1970. He pled not guilty, but subsequently withdrew this plea and pled guilty whereupon he was adjudged guilty and sentenced to serve twenty-five years in the State penitentiary. Four years later, the petitioner proceeding pro se and in for-ma pauperis moved in the Circuit Court, 12th Judicial Circuit, which sentenced him, to withdraw his guilty plea alleging that he had pled guilty involuntarily and without an understanding of the consequences. Said Motion was denied on December 23, 1974, and the petitioner sought timely certiorari review by this Court on January 7, 1975. The Attorney General of Florida moved to dismiss same.
Article V, Section 2(a) of the Florida Constitution, requires that this Court adopt rules for the practice and procedure in all courts,
“ . . . . including . . ., the transfer to the court having jurisdiction of any proceeding when the jurisdiction of another court has been improvidently invoked, and a requirement that no cause shall be dismissed because an improper remedy has been sought.”
Since the practical effect of granting the petitioner’s “motion to withdraw guilty plea” would be to vacate the sentence imposed and to set aside judgment, we choose to treat the petitioner’s motion as one for the vacation of sentence under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. Thus, the petition for certiorari is consequently to be treated as an appeal from denial of a Rule 3.850 motion.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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The City OF Miami v. Se. First Nat'l Bank OF Miami, 320 So. 2d 836 (Fla. 3d DCA 1975)…er dismissing the petition for certiorari granted this motion. The Supreme Court of Florida has pointed out that a petition for certiorari may be treated as an appeal. See State v. Johnson, Fla.1974, 306 So. 2d 102, and Whitlow v. State, Fla. 1975, 313 So. 2d 748. We conclude from these cases that a court, in dealing with a petition for extraordinary relief, must not enter a dismissal upon the narrow ground that the relief ordinarily granted in the type of petition actually filed is not available in that par…
Authorities Cited
- Williams v. State, 178 So. 2d 586 (Fla. 1965)