D'ARCANGELO v. State

82 So. 3d 1174, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 4331, 2012 WL 879283
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 16, 2012
Docket2D10-1375
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 82 So. 3d 1174 (D'ARCANGELO v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
D'ARCANGELO v. State, 82 So. 3d 1174, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 4331, 2012 WL 879283 (Fla. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

NORTHCUTT, Judge.

Upon consideration of Respondent’s motion for clarification and/or rehearing, rehearing is granted and this court’s opinion dated April 13, 2011, is withdrawn. The attached opinion is substituted therefor.

No further motions for rehearing or clarification will be entertained.

In this unusual case, Anthony D’Arcan-gelo seeks certiorari review of the circuit court’s order denying his motion to determine his competency and to stay proceedings on his motion for postconviction relief. We previously granted D’Arcangelo’s petition, but the State filed a timely motion for rehearing in which it made a concession that renders D’Arcangelo’s petition moot. For that reason, we withdraw our previous opinion and we now deny D’Arcangelo’s petition.

A. Facts Underlying D’Arcangelo’s Motion for Postconviction Relief.

In 1982, a jury in Tampa convicted D’Arcangelo of two counts of first-degree murder. The State endeavored to have him sentenced to death, but the penalty-phase jurors split evenly on the question. The trial court concluded that the appropriate punishment was life imprisonment, and it imposed that sentence.

At D’Arcangelo’s guilt-phase trial, the State had presented testimony from an FBI agent that he performed a comparative bullet lead analysis (CBLA), comparing bullets recovered from the crime scene with unspent bullets discovered at D’Ar-cangelo’s residence. The agent found an association between the bullets from the two locations. He testified that “the bullets came from the same box of ammunition or another box of ammunition having the same composition.”

Many years later, in August 2008, an FBI laboratory director sent a letter to the Thirteenth Circuit State Attorney advising that the agent’s expert trial testimony overstated the significance of his conclusions. Based on this newly discovered information, D’Arcangelo filed a pro se motion for postconviction relief pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. Some months later, he obtained legal counsel, who filed an amended motion.

D’Arcangelo claimed that the CBLA testimony was the only evidence that physically linked him to the crime and that, at the time of trial, neither he nor his attorney could have discovered that this evidence was unreliable. He asserted that if *1176 the discredited evidence had not been admitted, he likely would have been acquitted. D’Arcangelo asked the postconviction court to vacate his conviction and sentence and to grant him a new trial. Cf. Murphy v. State, 24 So.3d 1220 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009) (holding allegations in the prisoner’s rule 3.850 motion — that he recently discovered the CBLA evidence presented at his 1995 trial had been discredited and that he would probably have been acquitted if the evidence had not been introduced — could support relief under rule 3.850(b)(1)); Smith v. State, 23 So.3d 1277 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010) (same).

B. D’Arcangelo’s Competency and its Effect on the Postconviction Proceeding.

In late 2009, D’Arcangelo’s attorney began to suspect that her client was incompetent, and she hired an expert to examine him. The expert confirmed counsel’s suspicions. Counsel then filed a simple motion seeking a stay of the rule 3.850 proceedings until resolution of D’Arcangelo’s mental status. The motion asserted that there was a substantial issue regarding D’Arcangelo’s competence and that due process required that he be competent during the postconviction process. The court denied the motion, relying on Carter v. State, 706 So.2d 873 (Fla.1997), for the proposition that in postconviction proceedings a defendant’s competence is necessary only when a factual matter is at issue or when the development of such an issue would require the defendant’s input. In its ruling, the court limited its focus to the question raised by D’Arcangelo’s rule 3.850 motion, i.e., whether the newly discovered evidence discrediting the CBLA analysis would have resulted in a different outcome at trial, and it determined that the motion presented a legal issue, not a factual one.

Counsel thereafter filed another motion again seeking a stay and also requesting a competency hearing. But this time the motion described the quandary that D’Ar-cangelo could face. The motion asserted that case law bearing on whether D’Arcan-gelo could be exposed to the death penalty after a retrial was not consistent. Compare Bullington v. Missouri, 451 U.S. 430, 101 S.Ct. 1852, 68 L.Ed.2d 270 (1981) (holding that a jury’s verdict of life imprisonment barred the possibility of the death penalty at a retrial); and Arizona v. Rumsey, 467 U.S. 203, 104 S.Ct. 2305, 81 L.Ed.2d 164 (1984) (barring death penalty on retrial when the trial judge in first trial sentenced defendant to life), with Sattazahn v. Pennsylvania, 537 U.S. 101, 123 S.Ct. 732, 154 L.Ed.2d 588 (2003) (holding that a trial court’s discharge of the jury after it failed to reach a unanimous verdict and its entry of a life sentence did not bar the death penalty on retrial). Thus, the motion argued, D’Arcangelo had a factual decision to make: Should he proceed with his rule 3.850 motion and potentially expose himself to the death penalty? Or should he play it safe, withdraw his challenge concerning the CBLA testing, and spend the rest of his life in prison? The court again denied the motion.

D’Arcangelo filed a timely petition for a writ of certiorari seeking to quash the postconviction court’s order. See State v. Ayala, 604 So.2d 1275 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992). We stayed the proceedings on his motion for postconviction relief pending the disposition of the certiorari petition.

C. The Circuit Court’s Order.

We disagree with the circuit court’s reasoning behind its decision to deny D’Arcangelo’s motion. The circuit court relied on Carter, in which the supreme court established procedures addressing the incompetence of death-sentenced defendants in postconviction cases. See Carter, 706 So.2d at 876. Those procedures are now incorporated in Florida Rule of *1177 Criminal Procedure 3.851(g). It provides that a “death-sentenced prisoner pursuing collateral relief under this rule who is found by the court to be mentally incompetent shall not be proceeded against if there are factual matters at issue, the development or resolution of which require the prisoner’s input.” Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.851(g)(1). A competency hearing is required if “there are reasonable grounds to believe that a death-sentenced prisoner is incompetent to proceed and that factual matters are at issue.” Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.851(g)(3).

Carter is, indeed, instructive, but it does not directly control this case. Carter applies to incompetent death-sentenced prisoners only, as does rule 3.851. And as the Carter

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

STATE OF FLORIDA v. LYONS
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2024

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
82 So. 3d 1174, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 4331, 2012 WL 879283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/darcangelo-v-state-fladistctapp-2012.