Remeta v. State

710 So. 2d 543, 1998 WL 138766
Supreme Court of Florida·Decided March 29, 1998·No. 92670·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

710 So.2d 543 (1998)

Daniel Eugene REMETA, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 92670.

Supreme Court of Florida.

March 29, 1998.

Peter Kenny, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Southern Region, and Todd G. Scher, Chief Assistant Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Southern Region, Miami, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Judy Taylor Rush and Kenneth S. Nunnelley, Assistant Attorneys General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Daniel Eugene Remeta, who is scheduled to be electrocuted on March 31,1998, appeals an order entered by the trial court below denying Remeta's Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion to vacate his judgment and sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), (7), Fla. Const. This is the fourth time Remeta has filed for relief in this case before this Court. For the reasons expressed, we affirm the denial of relief.

A summary of the facts and procedural history of this case is as follows. On February 8, 1985, an Ocala, Florida, convenience store clerk was murdered after being shot four times. Two days later, in Waskom, Texas, Remeta and a companion robbed a convenience store and shot the cashier five *544 times; the cashier survived the shooting. The gun used in that crime was the same gun used to fire the shots in the Ocala murder, and Remeta was identified by the Texas convenience store clerk as the individual who shot her. On February 13, 1985, a Kansas gas station attendant was shot and killed with that same gun. Shortly after the Kansas murder, a sheriff stopped Remeta's vehicle. One of Remeta's companions shot the sheriff twice. Remeta and his companions fled; they went to a grain elevator, where they abducted two men and took their truck. The two men were forced to lie face down in the roadway and each was shot in the back of the head and killed with the same gun used in the other murders. Authorities later chased the truck to a farmyard, where a shootout occurred and one of Remeta's companions was killed.

On May 13,1985, Remeta pleaded guilty in Thomas County, Kansas to the grain elevator employee kidnapping and murders, two counts of aggravated battery, and one count of aggravated battery against a law enforcement officer. On May 16, 1985, Remeta also pleaded guilty in Gove County, Kansas to first-degree murder and aggravated robbery for the Kansas gas station attendant murder and robbery. For these convictions, Remeta received four consecutive life sentences with no eligibility for parole for eighty-five years.

Thereafter, Remeta was extradited to Florida to stand trial for the Ocala murder. The Texas clerk who survived the five gunshot wounds testified against Remeta at trial. Additionally, statements made by Remeta to law enforcement officers and a newspaper reporter implicating him in the Florida murder were introduced. He was convicted of first-degree murder. After the jury unanimously recommended death, the trial judge sentenced him to death finding four aggravating circumstances (nine prior violent felonies; committed during course of robbery; committed to avoid arrest; and cold, calculated, and premeditated (CCP)) and four mitigating circumstances (mental age of approximately 13; deprived childhood; low-average intelligence and subject to discrimination because of partial American Indian heritage and speech impediment; and long term substance abuser). That conviction and sentence was affirmed by this Court in Remeta v. State, 522 So.2d 825 (Fla.1988) (Remeta I),[1] and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on that case on October 3, 1988. See Remeta v. Florida, 488 U.S. 871, 109 S.Ct. 182,102 L.Ed.2d 151 (1988).

On January 10, 1990, the Governor of Florida signed a death warrant on Remeta. Subsequently, Remeta filed a rule 3.850 motion for postconviction relief in the trial court and filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in this Court. The trial court stayed the execution and set an evidentiary hearing on the rule 3.850 motion claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, finding all other claims to be without merit or to be procedurally barred. After the evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied rule 3.850 relief. This Court affirmed that ruling and denied Remeta's habeas petition in Remeta v. Dugger, 622 So.2d 452 (Fla.1993) (Remeta II).[2]

*545 Remeta next filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the federal district court, which was denied in 1994. That decision was affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in May 1996. See Remeta v. Singletary, 85 F.3d 513 (11th Cir.1996).[3] Letters in the record written by Remeta stated that "If I don't try for the death penalty I'll die in some prison, [t]his is why I'm trying to get extradited."; and "I'm gonna try for the death penalty if I can." Remeta also told a psychiatrist that he hoped to be transferred to a state where he would receive the death penalty. Thereafter, Remeta explicitly waived extradition. Remeta's motion for rehearing on that petition was denied, en banc, by the Eleventh Circuit in August 1996. Certiorari was denied by the United States Supreme Court in March 1997. See Remeta v. Singletary, ___ U.S. ___, 117 S.Ct. 1320, 137 L.Ed.2d 482 (1997). The Governor of Florida signed Remeta's second death warrant on December 9, 1997, scheduling his execution for March 31, 1998.

In February 1998, Remeta was allowed to intervene in a section 1983 civil action that was pending in the federal district court, in which a number of defendants represented by the Capital Collateral Regional Counsels (CCRC) were seeking to have the electric chair declared to be an unconstitutional method of punishment. However, on February 20, 1998, the district court judge reversed his decision allowing Remeta to intervene in that action, and on that same date, the judge issued summary judgment in favor of the State in that action. The Eleventh Circuit has subsequently affirmed denial of relief in that case. See Jones v. Crosby, 137 F.3d 1279 (11th Cir. 1998).

On February 18, 1998, Remeta's counsel moved to withdraw in this case due to an alleged conflict of interest caused by questions from members of the Commission for the Administration of Justice in Capital Cases regarding Remeta's involvement in the section 1983 action. The trial court denied that motion and the denial was subsequently affirmed by this Court. See Remeta v. Florida, 707 So.2d 719 (Fla. 1998) (Remeta III).

On March 24, 1998, Remeta filed his third postconviction relief request, again asking the trial court, under rule 3.850, to vacate his judgment and sentence. In that motion, *546 he raised three claims, asserting that (1) judicial electrocution is cruel and/or unusual punishment; (2) he is being denied effective representation due to CCRC-South's lack of adequate funding; and (3) invalid prior convictions in Kansas were unconstitutionally introduced into evidence in Remeta's guilt phase and were unconstitutionally used in aggravation in Remeta's penalty phase. On March 25, 1998, the trial court held a Huff[4] hearing to determine whether an evidentiary hearing was required on any of these claims. On March 27, 1998, the trial court summarily denied Remeta's claims, finding them to be procedurally barr

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