JESSIE WOLFE, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1975-12-19
No. 75-455
McNULTY, C. J., and SCHEB, J., concur.
323 So. 2d 680 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1975) Positive Treatment
Cited by 8 cases

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Holding

A sentence may be vacated if it was influenced by an invalid prior conviction, even if that conviction has not yet been judicially set aside.


Headnotes

[1] A prior conviction obtained in violation of Gideon v. …

[2] A defendant may seek to vacate a sentence based on the allegation that a prior invalid conviction was used to enhance the sentence.

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Facts & Procedural History

Appellant pleaded guilty to assault charges and was sentenced to consecutive terms. He later moved to vacate his sentence, alleging a prior conviction…

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Opinion of the Court
GRIMES, Judge.

GRIMES, Judge.

The ramifications of declaring Gideon1 retroactive continue to multiply.2

Appellant and his wife were charged with lewd and lascivious or indecent assault upon six children under fourteen years of age. Pursuant to a bargain, both entered pleas of guilty to the first three counts of the information and the state dismissed the other three counts. The court determined that appellant’s pleas were voluntarily made, that he was aware that he could receive fifteen years on each count and that no one had promised him that he would not receive the maximum sentence. Finding that the plea was freely entered with an understanding of its consequences, the court asked if there was anything to be said in mitigation. Appellant’s counsel pointed out that he was sixty-one years old and that although the court was aware of a similar conviction many years ago, the appellant had not been in trouble since that time. The state requested the maximum sentence, indicating that appellant’s wife, who had a clean record, received three concurrent fifteen year sentences, whereas appellant had a similar prior conviction. The court adjudged appellant guilty and sentenced him to three consecutive fifteen year terms.

Appellant has now filed a verified motion to vacate his sentence under RCrP 3.850. Appellant alleges that his prior conviction was invalid under Gideon because he did not have counsel to represent him. Thus, he says that the court improperly considered the prior invalid conviction when he meted out the sentences. Appellant takes this appeal from the denial of his motion to vacate.

This appeal is controlled by the case of United States v. Tucker, 1972, 404 U.S. 443, 92 S.Ct. 589, 30 L.Ed.2d 592. In the course of sentencing Tucker to twenty-five years for robbery, the trial judge had been specifically directed to Tucker’s three pre-Gideon felony convictions. Several years later, two of these convictions were set aside because Tucker had been unrepresented by counsel and had not been advised of his right to legal assistance and had not waived this right. The Supreme Court of the United States held that Tucker’s sentence might have been different if the sentencing judge had known that at least two of his prior convictions had been unconstitutionally obtained. The case was remanded to the trial court for resentencing “without consideration of any prior convictions which are invalid under Gideon v. Wainwright.”

The only meaningful distinction between Tucker and the instant case is that in Tucker the convictions had already been judicially set aside, whereas appellant has only made allegations which, if proven to be true, would result in his prior conviction being vacated. This case is similar in posture to Howard v. State, Fla.App.4th, 1973, 280 So. 2d 705. There, the court was faced with a post-conviction motion stating that a conviction which was allegedly invalid because of having been rendered without the assistance of counsel was used to enhance a later sentence imposed for a subsequent conviction of a similar crime. The court remanded the case for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the earlier conviction was invalid, and if so, the extent to which the imposition of the subsequent sentence was based upon the prior invalid conviction.

In the instant case, the record clearly reflects that the trial judge could have been influenced by appellant’s prior conviction of an offense similar to those for which he was being sentenced. Appellant’s wife had been charged with the same offenses and had made the same bargain. Appellant’s wife, with no prior convictions, was given concurrent sentences, whereas appellant received consecutive sentences. Under the circumstances, this case should be remanded for a determination of whether appellant’s prior conviction was invalid. If so, appellant should be resentenced without any consideration of this conviction.

This decision should not be construed as requiring resentencing in every case where reference is made in a pre-sen-tence report to a conviction which is later alleged to have been invalid on Gideon grounds. In this case, as in Tucker, the fact of the prior conviction was specifically called to the court’s attention in the sentencing colloquy, and the circumstances of both cases were such that it was reasonable to conclude that the sentencing judge may have been influenced by these convictions.

This case is remanded for proceedings in accord with this opinion.

McNULTY, C. J., and SCHEB, J., concur. . Gideon v. Wainwright, 1963, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799.

. See Weir v. State, Fla.App.2d, 1975, 319 So. 2d 80.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • State v. The Honorable Virgil B. Conkling, 421 So. 2d 1108 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982)
    …9, 88 S.Ct. 258, 19 L.Ed.2d 319 (1967). Such prior convictions [*1111] should not be considered by the trial court in determining the severity of a sentence. United States v. Tucker, 404 U.S. 443, 92 S.Ct. 589, 30 L.Ed.2d 592 (1972); Wolfe v. State, 323 So. 2d 680 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975); Hicks v. State, 336 So. 2d 1244 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976). Use of such uncounseled prior convictions to impeach a defendant at trial is a violation of due process. Loper v. Beto, 405 U.S. 473, 92 S.Ct. 1014, 31 L.Ed.2d 374 (1972). It h…
  • Hicks v. State, 336 So. 2d 1244 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976)
    …ion of the defendant’s sentence by the sentencing judge, without consideration of any prior convictions which are invalid under the Gideon case. This same procedure was followed in Howard v. State, 280 So. 2d 705 (4DCA Fla. 1973) and Wolfe v. State, 323 So. 2d 680 (2DCA Fla.1975). The order appealed from recites that the sentences imposed were “within the limits set by statute,” that the court has “reviewed the file in this case,” and that “an evidentiary hearing is not necessary.” This court held in the How…
  • Glenn v. State, 338 So. 2d 263 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976)
    …eges that these prior convictions were uncounseled ones, that he was not financially able to obtain counsel, and that he did not waive his right to counsel. If all of these allegations are true, appellant would be entitled to relief. Wolfe v. State, 323 So. 2d 680 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975); Howard v. State, 280 So. 2d 705 (Fla. 4th DCA 1973). The transcript of the sentencing hearing shows that the following statements were made: THE COURT: Do you have his sheet here today, Mr. Bailiff? As I recall from the trial h…

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