Case Title: Jent v. State

Citation: 435 So. 2d 809

Docket Number: 

State: florida

Court: Florida Supreme Court

Date: 1983-07-18T00:00:00Z

Document:
435 So. 2d 809 (1983)
William Riley JENT, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 63957.

Supreme Court of Florida.
July 18, 1983.
Eleanor Jackson Piel, New York City, for appellant.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Michael J. Kotler and M. Ann Garrison, Asst. Attys. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
Jent appeals the denial of his motion,[*] filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal *810 Procedure 3.850, to vacate, set aside, or correct conviction and sentence. We have jurisdiction and affirm the denial and deny his application for stay of execution.
A jury convicted Jent of first-degree murder, and the trial judge sentenced him to death. We affirmed both the conviction and sentence. Jent v. State, 408 So. 2d 1024 (Fla. 1981), cert. denied, 457 U.S. 1111, 102 S. Ct. 2916, 73 L. Ed. 2d 1322 (1982). The governor signed Jent's death warrant on June 23, 1983. Jent then filed the motion which is the subject of this appeal.
On appeal Jent urges that (1) the trial court erred by (a) failing to hold an evidentiary hearing regarding prosecutorial misconduct and (b) failed to find Jent's trial counsel ineffective; (2) Jent's original counsel's representation of another person violated Jent's sixth amendment rights; and (3) unseemly haste to execution has denied him due process. We find no error in the trial court proceeding.
The portion of the motion concerned with prosecutorial misconduct deals with the motion for new trial. In denying relief on that claim the court held that the issue had been presented and considered on direct appeal. We find no error in the court's failure to grant an evidentiary hearing. The purpose and reasons for the witnesses' recantations were developed at the hearing on the motion for new trial and the testimony was subjected to cross-examination. Jent now alleges a different type of coercion from that urged on direct appeal, but the record affirmatively shows a competent basis for the trial court's ruling.
Jent alleges his trial counsel was ineffective in the following respects: (1) failure to secure an independent medical examiner; (2) failure to investigate the eyewitnesses' backgrounds; (3) failure to secure an independent expert on hair analysis; (4) failure to find character witnesses other than family; (5) failure to object to two instructions; and (6) ineffectiveness due to interference by the prosecutor. Several of these alleged failings have their basis in points considered on direct appeal where this Court found no error to have occurred (impeachment of eyewitnesses, hair analysis, instructions). We agree with the trial court that Jent has failed to demonstrate any substantial and serious deficiency on his counsel's part. Knight v. State, 394 So. 2d 997 (Fla. 1981). Moreover, regarding Jent's claim on his original counsel, we also agree with the court's ruling that counsel immediately recognized the possibility of a conflict and sought and received permission to withdraw. Jent has shown no prejudice to him or impropriety in what happened.
As his final point, Jent complains both that the state has acted with unseemly haste in setting his execution and that the trial court acted with undue slowness in dismissing his first 3.850 motion. We find no merit to this claim. This Court issued its opinion affirming his conviction and sentence on December 3, 1981, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on June 7, 1982. Over one full year, therefore, passed before the signing of his death warrant. This is not unseemly haste, and we do not find any state action in this case to have been arbitrary or capricious.
Accordingly, we affirm the trial court's denial of Jent's motions to vacate and for stay of execution. No motion for rehearing will be allowed.
It is so ordered.
ALDERMAN, C.J., and ADKINS, BOYD, OVERTON, McDONALD, EHRLICH and SHAW, JJ., concur.
[*]  The trial court's order denying relief is set out as an appendix to this opinion.