Lopez v. Singletary

634 So. 2d 1054, 1993 WL 335020
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedSeptember 2, 1993
Docket75847, 78228
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 634 So. 2d 1054 (Lopez v. Singletary) 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
Lopez v. Singletary, 634 So. 2d 1054, 1993 WL 335020 (Fla. 1993).

Opinion

634 So.2d 1054 (1993)

Eduardo LOPEZ, Petitioner,
v.
Harry K. SINGLETARY, etc., Respondent.
Eduardo LOPEZ, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Nos. 75847, 78228.

Supreme Court of Florida.

September 2, 1993.
Rehearings Denied December 9, 1993 and April 20, 1994.

*1055 Michael J. Minerva, Interim Capital Collateral Representative, Gail E. Anderson, Asst. CCR and Todd G. Scher, Staff Atty., Office of the Capital Collateral Representative, Tallahassee, for petitioner/appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Mary Leontakianakos, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for respondent/appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Eduardo Lopez, a prisoner on death row, petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus and appeals the trial court's denial of his motion for postconviction relief. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const.; Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.850. We deny all relief except for remanding to the trial court for an in-camera inspection of the sealed portions of the state attorney's files to determine if those sealed portions should have been disclosed to Lopez.

In January 1983 Lopez and two companions broke into a woman's home and shot her and her eight-year-old son. The boy died, and, under a plea agreement, Lopez received a term of life imprisonment in exchange for his testimony against the accomplices. When Lopez refused to testify, the court rescinded the agreement and sentenced him to death. This Court affirmed the trial court's actions on direct appeal.[1]Lopez v. State, 536 So.2d 226 (Fla. 1988).

Governor Martinez signed a death warrant for Lopez in the spring of 1990, and Lopez filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus and asked for a stay of execution, which this Court granted. In September 1990 Lopez filed a rule 3.850 motion with the trial court, and that court denied the motion without an evidentiary hearing in June 1991. In October 1992 Lopez filed a supplemental habeas petition raising additional issues.

3.850 Motion

Lopez raises eighteen points in appealing the denial of his postconviction motion: (1) state attorney denied Lopez access to public records; (2) the court erred in not holding an evidentiary hearing; (3) Castro's[2] abandonment of Lopez constituted ineffective assistance; (4) use of hypnotically induced testimony violated Lopez' rights; (5) Castro rendered ineffective assistance regarding the *1056 guilty plea; (6) Haymes was ineffective regarding the sentencing; (7) the mental health experts did not conduct competent evaluations; (8) the court applied an improper automatic aggravator; (9) Lockett[3] error occurred; (10) the court improperly refused to find mitigators; (11) Castro rendered ineffective assistance by testifying at the plea enforcement hearing; (12) the absence of an interpreter violated Lopez' rights; (13) Lopez was absent from critical stages; (14) Brady[4] violations occurred; (15) the avoid arrest aggravator was improperly applied; (16) Lopez' guilty plea was not knowing and voluntary; (17) Lopez was incompetent; and (18) Lopez did not knowingly and voluntarily waive the sentencing jury. Postconviction motions are not to be used as second appeals. Medina v. State, 573 So.2d 293 (Fla. 1990). Issues that were, or could have been, raised on direct appeal are not cognizable on collateral attack. Johnson v. State, 593 So.2d 206 (Fla.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 113 S.Ct. 119, 121 L.Ed.2d 75 (1992). Therefore, the following claims are procedurally barred because they were or could have been raised on direct appeal[5]: (4) hypnotically induced testimony;[6] (7) mental health exams; (8) automatic aggravator; (9) Lockett error; (10) mitigators; (12) interpreter; (13) absence; (14) Brady violation;[7] (15) applicability of an aggravator; (16) propriety of guilty plea; (17) competency; and (18) jury waiver.

If a postconviction motion is denied without an evidentiary hearing, the motion and record must show that no relief is warranted. Roberts v. State, 568 So.2d 1255 (Fla. 1990). As set out above, most of the issues raised in the postconviction motion are procedurally barred. Thus, as demonstrated by the motion itself and the record, no evidentiary hearing was necessary regarding them. The trial court attached portions of the record to the order denying relief, and we agree that an evidentiary hearing on the remaining issues was not needed.

Turning to the claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, we agree with the trial court that they either have no merit or are procedurally barred. In issue (3) Lopez argues that Castro improperly abandoned his representation. As found by the trial court this was not so. Castro represented Lopez through his guilty plea and Haymes represented him thereafter. Lopez has not shown the substandard performance by counsel that prejudiced him, as required by Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Instead, any prejudice Lopez may have suffered was the consequence of his willful failure to cooperate and uphold his part of the plea agreement.

In issue (5) Lopez argues that Castro rendered ineffective assistance because he failed to investigate mental health issues and allowed Lopez to enter a guilty plea while he was incompetent. On direct appeal Lopez attacked the voluntariness of his guilty plea and his competency to enter that plea and we found his arguments meritless. Lopez, 536 *1057 So.2d at 228-30. Lopez was a difficult client, but as we noted on direct appeal, "no question regarding Lopez' competency arose until after the 1985 hearing." Id. at 230. See Mills v. State, 603 So.2d 482, 485 (Fla. 1992) (defendant's mental condition not at issue in every criminal case). Charges of ineffective assistance of counsel cannot be used to get around the rule that postconviction proceedings cannot be used as a second appeal. Medina Thus, this claim is procedurally barred now, the substance of it having been found meritless on direct appeal.

Issue (11), alleging that Castro rendered ineffective assistance by testifying at the plea revocation hearing, suffers from a similar defect. Lopez' motion to vacate the plea called into question the effectiveness of Castro's advocacy. When the state called Castro at the plea revocation hearing, Haymes objected that Castro's testifying would violate the attorney/client privilege, and the court overruled that objection because Castro's knowledge was crucial to determining the voluntariness of the plea. Cf. Wilson v. Wainwright, 248 So.2d 249, 259 (Fla. 1st DCA 1971) ("a lawyer who represents a client in any criminal proceeding may reveal communications between him and his client when accused of wrongful conduct by his client concerning his representation where such revelation is necessary to establish whether his conduct was wrongful as accused."); Turner v. State, 530 So.2d 45 (Fla. 1987), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1040, 109 S.Ct. 1175, 103 L.Ed.2d 237 (1989). Thus, the substance of this issue could have been raised on direct appeal and is now barred because it was not so raised. Again, a claim of counsel's ineffectiveness cannot be used to overcome the rule that collateral attacks cannot be used as a second appeal.[8]

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Bluebook (online)
634 So. 2d 1054, 1993 WL 335020, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lopez-v-singletary-fla-1993.