Bolender v. State

658 So. 2d 82, 1995 WL 406342
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJuly 11, 1995
Docket86020
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 658 So. 2d 82 (Bolender v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bolender v. State, 658 So. 2d 82, 1995 WL 406342 (Fla. 1995).

Opinion

658 So.2d 82 (1995)

Bernard BOLENDER, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 86020.

Supreme Court of Florida.

July 11, 1995.
Certiorari Denied July 17, 1995.

Mark Evan Olive and Anne Faith Jacobs of Volunteer Lawyers' Post-Conviction Defender Organization, Inc., Tallahassee, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Fariba N. Komeily, Asst. Atty. Gen., Miami, for appellee.

Certiorari Denied July 17, 1995. See 116 S.Ct. 12.

PER CURIAM.

Bernard Bolender, a prisoner on death row, appeals the trial court's denial of his third motion for postconviction relief and request for a stay of execution. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm the trial court's ruling.

A jury convicted Bolender of four counts of first-degree murder.[1] The facts of the murders are set forth in Bolender v. State, 422 So.2d 833 *83 (Fla. 1982) (Bolender I), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 939, 103 S.Ct. 2111, 77 L.Ed.2d 315 (1983). The jury unanimously recommended life imprisonment, but the trial judge imposed the death penalty upon finding no mitigators and all but one statutory aggravator. Id. at 835. On appeal, this Court concluded that the trial court erroneously applied two statutory aggravators. Id. at 837-38. We held, however, that our disapproval of the aggravators did not require reversal in light of the absence of any mitigating evidence and thus affirmed Bolender's convictions and sentences. Id. at 838.[2]

In August 1983, Bolender filed his first motion for postconviction relief pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 alleging ineffective assistance of trial counsel.[3] The Governor subsequently signed Bolender's first death warrant on January 31, 1984. The trial judge presiding over Bolender's first postconviction motion then granted a stay of execution in order to hold a hearing on the motion. The hearing took place in December 1985, and the trial judge later entered a written order granting Bolender's motion and vacating his death sentences on the grounds that counsel was ineffective for failing to present mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of Bolender's trial. The trial judge resentenced Bolender to life imprisonment provided such sentence was affirmed on appeal.

The State appealed the order vacating the death sentences to this Court. We determined that the trial judge did not apply the proper standard in finding ineffective assistance of counsel. State v. Bolender, 503 So.2d 1247, 1249 (Fla. 1987) (Bolender II), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 873, 108 S.Ct. 209, 98 L.Ed.2d 161 (1987). Applying the proper standard set forth in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), we concluded that because trial counsel's decision not to present mitigating evidence during the sentencing hearing was a tactical one, the decision was not constitutional error. Bolender II, 503 So.2d at 1249-50. We therefore reversed the trial court's order and directed the trial court to reinstate the death sentences. Id. at 1250. The trial court thereafter enforced this Court's mandate, and we dismissed Bolender's appeal from the reinstatement in Bolender v. State, 541 So.2d 1172 (Fla. 1989).

In April 1989, Bolender filed a second motion for postconviction relief, which was followed by a second death warrant signed in January 1990. The trial court denied the 3.850 motion on February 12, 1990. However, in response to Bolender's claim that the State violated Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), by withholding material exculpatory evidence, the court gave Bolender access to the State's files, including the file of codefendant Thompson, who had been declared incompetent.

Bolender then appealed the denial of the 3.850 motion to this Court. Bolender v. Dugger, 564 So.2d 1057 (Fla. 1990) (Bolender III).[4] On March 5, 1990, he also filed an *84 application for a stay of execution and a writ of habeas corpus with this Court.[5] On March 8, 1990, we granted a temporary stay of execution, and on March 9, 1990, we issued an order granting an indefinite stay and setting Bolender's cases for oral argument. On the same day we granted the indefinite stay, the trial court held another hearing regarding the information Bolender obtained from the State's files and again denied relief. We then heard oral argument on April 4, 1990, and denied Bolender's petition for habeas, affirmed the trial court's denial of relief, and dissolved the stay we had previously entered. Id. at 1059.

The Governor signed a third death warrant in September 1990, and Bolender filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida on October 1, 1990, several days before the scheduled execution. The district court granted a stay of execution to address the matters presented in the petition.[6]Bolender v. Dugger, 757 F. Supp. 1400, 1406 (S.D.Fla. 1991). After two days of nonevidentiary hearings, the district court found all the issues raised to be without merit, denied relief, and dissolved the stay. Id. at 1411. The court, however, granted Bolender leave to appeal the denial. Id.

On appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, Bolender raised five claims previously rejected by the federal district court[7] and challenged the district court's refusal to conduct an evidentiary hearing. Bolender v. Singletary, 16 F.3d 1547 (11th Cir.1994), cert denied, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 589, 130 L.Ed.2d 502 (1994). The circuit court wrote an extensive review of the procedural history in this case as well as the issues presented and determined. In that review, the court then denied Bolender's request for an evidentiary hearing and found the remaining claims to be procedurally barred or without merit.

On May 24, 1995, the Governor signed Bolender's fourth death warrant, which gave rise to the current proceedings. Bolender filed a third rule 3.850 motion in the trial court, and the court considered and, after argument of counsel, denied the motion. In his appeal to this Court from the denial of this postconviction motion, Bolender raises *85 ten issues: (1) had the State not misrepresented to the court that codefendant Joe Macker passed a polygraph examination, Bolender would not have been convicted and sentenced to death; (2) newly discovered evidence demonstrates that the State knew of but suppressed evidence of codefendant Macker's allegedly sordid criminal history; (3) newly discovered evidence reveals that the State knew of but suppressed evidence of Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
658 So. 2d 82, 1995 WL 406342, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bolender-v-state-fla-1995.