Richardson v. State

918 So. 2d 999, 2006 WL 140403
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJanuary 20, 2006
Docket5D05-1868
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 918 So. 2d 999 (Richardson 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
Richardson v. State, 918 So. 2d 999, 2006 WL 140403 (Fla. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

918 So.2d 999 (2006)

Roosevelt RICHARDSON, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 5D05-1868.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

January 20, 2006.

*1000 Roosevelt Richardson, Polk City, pro se.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Lamya A. Henry, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.

SAWAYA, J.

We dispel the notion, apparently held by some, that when a petition for writ of habeas corpus is filed challenging the underlying conviction, the petition must in all instances be treated as a motion for post-conviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 and either granted or denied on the merits. We believe, based on clear precedent from the Florida Supreme Court and the District Courts of Appeal, that it is proper to dismiss a habeas petition collaterally attacking the conviction when it is clearly discernable that the claims raised are procedurally barred or do not comply with the requirements of rule 3.850. Here dismissal was appropriate as we will now explain.

Roosevelt Richardson, pro se, was convicted of felony offenses arising out of crimes committed in Volusia County, which is situated within the Seventh Judicial Circuit. Having unsuccessfully appealed those convictions to this court, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Circuit Court of Volusia County, contending that he had been mentally incompetent to stand trial. Because he was illegally convicted, he contends, his release from the confines of the Polk Correctional Institution in Polk County, which is in the Tenth Judicial Circuit, is the appropriate remedy for the injustice inflicted upon him.

The trial court summarily denied the petition because, the court found, it lacked jurisdiction and because the issues Richardson attempted to raise were issues which were or could have been raised on direct appeal. Richardson contends this was error and that he is entitled to the relief requested in his petition, which is nothing more than a rule 3.850 motion for postconviction relief disguised as a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Richardson suggests that his petition should be treated as a rule 3.850 motion, arguing that he is entitled "to collaterally attack the conviction by proving his incompetency" and that he "is entitled to an evidentiary hearing for that purpose." We will first address the jurisdictional issue and explain why the petition was filed in the proper locale. Then we will explain why we have come to the conclusion that the petition should have been dismissed and why it should not be treated as a rule 3.850 motion.

*1001 We agree with the State's pronouncement of the general rule that a petition for writ of habeas corpus should be filed in the circuit where the defendant is detained — in this case, the Tenth Judicial Circuit.[1] But there is an exception explained previously by us in Collins v. State, 859 So.2d 1244, 1245-46 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003), wherein we stated that "[w]hen a petitioner attacks the validity of the conviction by raising issues relating to the trial or to the propriety of a plea, jurisdiction in habeas proceedings lies with the trial court that imposed the sentence and rendered the judgment of conviction." Id. at 1245 (citing Sheriff v. Moore, 781 So.2d 1146 (Fla. 1st DCA 2001); Frederick v. State, 714 So.2d 1043, 1043 (Fla. 4th DCA) ("Habeas petitions directed to trial issues must be brought in the circuit court for the county where the trial occurred."), review denied, 728 So.2d 201 (Fla.1998); McLeroy v. State, 704 So.2d 151 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997) (dismissing petition for habeas corpus alleging ineffective assistance of trial counsel because the petition must be filed in court where original sentence imposed, not where defendant is incarcerated); Leichtman v. Singletary, 674 So.2d 889 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996)); see also Barnes v. Crosby, 909 So.2d 534, 535 (Fla. 2d DCA 2005) ("Because Barnes was attacking the validity of the proceedings in the Tenth Judicial Circuit Court, jurisdiction to entertain the petition lay with that court.").

The essence of Richardson's claim is that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial, and this is clearly a trial issue appropriately addressed by the circuit court that adjudicated Richardson guilty of the crimes he committed. Hence, the trial court in Volusia County did have jurisdiction. We note, parenthetically, that had jurisdiction been found lacking, the appropriate disposition would have been dismissal of the petition rather than denial on the merits. Nevertheless, as we will next explain, dismissal of the petition is the appropriate disposition here because the issue of mental incompetence should have been raised in Richardson's prior appeal rather than in his petition for habeas corpus.

The precedent previously alluded to, upon which we rely to arrive at our conclusion that Richardson's petition should have been dismissed, derives from analysis of the historical development of rule 3.850 and the writ of habeas corpus, which is constitutionally guaranteed to all citizens of Florida by Article I, Section 13 of the Florida Constitution. We need not indulge repetition of that analysis here. Suffice it to say that historically, habeas corpus proceedings were the means available to a defendant to challenge the validity *1002 of his or her conviction and sentence. See State ex rel. Butterworth v. Kenny, 714 So.2d 404, 408-09 (Fla.1998). Heavily borrowing from the provisions of 28 U.S.C.A. 2255, the Florida Supreme Court in 1963 enacted Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 1, which was the predecessor to current rules 3.850 and 3.851, Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure. As was its federal counterpart, rule 1 was "promulgated to establish an effective procedure in the courts best equipped to adjudicate the rights of those originally tried in those courts .... [and] provide a complete and efficacious post-conviction remedy to correct convictions on any grounds which subject them to collateral attack." Roy v. Wainwright, 151 So.2d 825, 828 (Fla.1963). As the court explained in Baker v. State, 878 So.2d 1236 (Fla.2004), "The history of rule 3.850 ... indicates that it was intended to provide a procedural mechanism for raising those collateral postconviction challenges to the legality of criminal judgments that were traditionally cognizable in petitions for writs of habeas corpus .... [and] essentially transfer[] consideration of these traditional habeas claims from the court having territorial jurisdiction over the prison where the prisoner is detained to the jurisdiction of the sentencing court." Id. at 1238-39 (footnote omitted); see also Collins, 859 So.2d at 1246 ("Claims that a plea was involuntary or that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance are issues that may now more appropriately be raised in a motion under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. Prior to adoption of this rule, habeas corpus was the primary procedural device to challenge the validity of a sentence or judgment of conviction. Adoption of the rule superseded habeas corpus as the method to collaterally attack a sentence or judgment of conviction.").

Since adoption of rule 3.850 and its predecessor, the courts have consistently held that it is inappropriate to collaterally attack a conviction through the process of habeas proceedings because such claims are cognizable under the rule. Baker; Washington v. State, 876 So.2d 1233, 1234 (Fla.

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Bluebook (online)
918 So. 2d 999, 2006 WL 140403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richardson-v-state-fladistctapp-2006.