Case Title: Spenkelink v. Wainwright

Citation: 372 So. 2d 927

Docket Number: 56941

State: florida

Court: Florida Supreme Court

Date: 1979-05-25T00:00:00Z

Document:
372 So. 2d 927 (1979)
John A. SPENKELINK, Petitioner,
v.
Louie L. WAINWRIGHT, Director, Florida Department of Corrections, Respondent.
No. 56941.

Supreme Court of Florida.
May 25, 1979.
Howell L. Ferguson and Steven Goldstein, Tallahassee, for petitioner.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Raymond Marky, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for respondent.
PER CURIAM.
Petitioner in this cause filed at 7:35 a.m. today a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus and an Application for Stay of Execution. These having been duly considered by the Court in emergency session after counsel for both sides were accorded oral argument, it was ordered at 9:28 a.m. that the Petition and the Stay be denied.
While still convened in emergency session, a Motion to Intervene as Amicus Curiae and to present a petition for review of sentence and an application for stay was filed by telephone with Chief Justice England and Justices Adkins and Boyd by Cheney Mason, Esquire, 127 N. Magnolia, Orlando, Florida.
The gravamen of the petition appeared to be a suggestion that the process by which executions are carried out in Florida is unconstitutional (i) as violative of due process of law, inasmuch as no rules have been promulgated by the Department of Corrections under the administrative procedures act, and (ii) in that the legislature has unduly delegated legislative authority to the Department. Counsel for both sides were given an opportunity to comment on these matters. The Court then duly considered the petition, application, and motion, and at 9:35 a.m. the Motion to Intervene as Amicus Curiae was denied.
Counsel for petitioner promptly made an oral motion for a stay and a request for review of petitioner's sentence on the same grounds urged by Mr. Cheney. The Court having considered these matters, both were at 9:48 a.m. denied.
ENGLAND, C.J., and ADKINS, BOYD, SUNDBERG and HATCHETT, JJ., concur.
ALDERMAN, J., concurs specially with an opinion, with which ADKINS, J., concurs.
OVERTON, J., although not participating in this decision, was in telephone communication with the other justices throughout the proceedings on this date.
ALDERMAN, Justice, concurring specially.
I agree with the holding of the majority opinion; however, I take this opportunity to express my view of the questionable practice of waiting until a death warrant is signed by the governor to file petitions raising matters which could have been brought to the Court's attention months or even *928 years before the warrant is signed. Such conduct, in my opinion, is an abuse of the judicial process.
John Spenkelink was convicted of murder in the first degree and was sentenced to death in December, 1973. This Court upheld his judgment and sentence on May 8, 1975. Spinkellink v. State, 313 So. 2d 666 (Fla. 1975). Certiorari was thereafter sought in and denied by the Supreme Court of the United States. Spenkelink v. Florida, 428 U.S. 911, 96 S. Ct. 3327, 49 L. Ed. 2d 1221 (1976). In September, 1977, after the governor issued a death warrant for Spenkelink, Spenkelink sought post-conviction relief in the trial court pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, raising matters which properly could have and should have been raised before the signing of the death warrant. We found these matters to be without merit and affirmed the trial court's denial of post-conviction relief. Spenkelink v. State, 350 So. 2d 85 (Fla. 1977). We also denied the motion for stay of execution. The Supreme Court of the United States denied certiorari. Spenkelink v. Florida, 434 U.S. 960, 98 S. Ct. 492, 54 L. Ed. 2d 320 (1977). After the death warrant was signed, Spenkelink also filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the federal district court which alleged the same grounds as those raised in the state courts. This petition was denied, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of the petition for writ of habeas corpus. Spinkellink v. Wainwright, 578 F.2d 582 (1978). The Supreme Court of the United States denied certiorari. Spinkellink v. Wainwright, ___ U.S. ___, 99 S. Ct. 1548, 59 L. Ed. 2d 796 (1979).
In April, 1979, Spenkelink filed yet another motion to vacate in the trial court, alleging that the State failed to prove premeditation, that his death sentence is disproportionate to his crime and to sentences imposed in similar cases, and that the death penalty statute is unconstitutional because it attempts to govern practice and procedure. This motion was denied, and on May 10, 1979, he filed an appeal from the order of denial of the motion to vacate. A second death warrant was signed on May 18, 1979, after which he moved for a stay of execution. On May 21, 1979, we denied the stay and affirmed the trial court's order denying the order to vacate, set aside, or correct sentence. On this same date, he filed another habeas corpus petition with the federal district court. The federal district court, on May 21, 1979, dismissed the petition, denied an application for stay of execution, and denied an application for certificate of probable cause. On May 22, 1979, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied his request for application for certificate of probable cause and application for stay pending appeal. An application for stay of execution was thereafter filed with the Supreme Court of the United States on May 22, 1979. Justice Marshall granted the stay of execution until May 24, 1979. This stay was subsequently vacated by the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Tuttle of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had also been requested to grant a stay of execution, which he did. This stay, however, was vacated by order of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals effective 9:30 a.m., May 25, 1979. A final, desperate, last-minute attempt to stay the execution was made by Spenkelink when he sought review of the Fifth Circuit's action. The Supreme Court of the United States denied this final request for relief.
At 7:35 a.m. on May 25, 1979, the date the execution was scheduled to take place, Spenkelink filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus with this Court, alleging that he was entitled to mitigation of sentence because of the failure of this Court on direct appeal to consider a mitigating factor and because this Court failed to consider the complete record of all the proceedings in the trial court. While the Court was convened in emergency session to consider this habeas corpus petition which raised matters which should have been raised long before and were completely without merit, a motion to intervene as amicus curiae and to present a petition for review of sentence and application for stay, the gravamen of which is stated in the majority opinion, was filed by telephone at the last minute. This *929 final petition also alleged grounds which should have been raised long before the "eleventh hour," and which, in any event, were without merit.
Spenkelink has abused the writ of habeas corpus and judicial process in general by these last-minute, frivolous attempts to stay the inevitable execution by the filing of matters which should have been raised, if at all, long before the death warrant was signed.
The federal court system proscribes the abuse of the writ by placing stringent requirements on the successive filings of petitions for writ of habeas corpus. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b) provides:
See Johnson v. Massey, 516 F.2d 1001 (5th Cir.1975).
Even prior to the adoption of this provision relating to abuse of the writ, the Supreme Court of the United States in Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 18, 83 S. Ct. 1068, 1078, 10 L. Ed. 2d 148 (1963), stated:
In Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S. Ct. 822, 9 L. Ed. 2d 837 (1963), the Supreme Court explained that habeas corpus traditionally has been governed by equitable principles among which is the principle that "a suitor's conduct in relation to the matter at hand may disentitle him to the relief he seeks." 372 U.S.  at 438, 83 S. Ct.  at 849.
The federal rule is sound. A death row inmate who deliberately withholds one of two or more arguable points for collateral relief at the time he files his first petition, in an attempt to thwart the judicial process and to gain a temporary stay of execution, should not be entitled to consideration of any such late-filed petitions.
The matters raised by the present petitions reasonably could have been raised prior to the signing of the death warrant and appear to be matters that were held until the last minute in the hopes of obtaining another stay of execution. As Justice Rehnquist stated in Evans v. Bennett, ___ U.S. ___, 99 S. Ct. 1481, 1485, 59 L. Ed. 2d 756, 761 (1979), (an opinion of a Justice in chambers):
Justice Rehnquist further declared:
___ U.S. at ___, 99 S. Ct.  at 1482-1483, 59 L. Ed. 2d  at 759.
Accordingly, I concur in the denial of the requested relief not only because it is without merit but also because it comes too late.
ADKINS, J., concurs.