Case Name: Iqbal ZABRANI, Petitioner, v. The Honorable Edward D. COWART, Judge of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, in and for Dade County, Criminal Division, Respondent
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1986-11-25
Citations: 502 So. 2d 1257
Docket Number: No. 86-910
Parties: Iqbal ZABRANI, Petitioner, v. The Honorable Edward D. COWART, Judge of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, in and for Dade County, Criminal Division, Respondent.
Judges: Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and BARKDULL, HENDRY, HUBBART, NESBITT, BASKIN, DANIEL S. PEARSON, FERGUSON and JORGENSON, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 502
Pages: 1257–1261

Head Matter:
Iqbal ZABRANI, Petitioner, v. The Honorable Edward D. COWART, Judge of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, in and for Dade County, Criminal Division, Respondent.
No. 86-910.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
Nov. 25, 1986.
Mark King Leban, Stanford Blake, Miami, for petitioner.
Janet Reno, State Atty., and Joel D. Ro-senblatt, Asst. State Atty, for respondent.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen. and Charles M. Fahlbusch, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State of Fla. as intervenor.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and BARKDULL, HENDRY, HUBBART, NESBITT, BASKIN, DANIEL S. PEARSON, FERGUSON and JORGENSON, JJ.

Opinion:
SCHWARTZ, Chief Judge.
Zabrani was taken into custody on a first degree murder charge on July 11, 1984. After the state failed to proceed against him, the action was at first dismissed, but he was rearrested on April 6, 1985. On April 24, 1985, more than 180 days after the first arrest, he moved for discharge under the speedy trial rule, Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.191. The trial judge has twice denied the motion on the ground that the grace period provision of Fla.R.Crim.P, 3.191(i)(4), as amended effective January 1, 1985 was applicable so that Zabrani was not entitled to the relief sought. The defendant now seeks prohibition, correctly asserting that McKnight v. Bloom, 490 So.2d 92 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986), which held on indistinguishable facts that the pre-1985 date of arrest controls the determination of the applicable version of the speedy trial rule, requires his discharge. Upon en banc consideration of the issue involved in McKnight, we reach the contrary conclusion that the 1985 date of the motion for discharge is determinative and therefore deny prohibition.
There is no dispute that the speedy trial rule is entirely procedural in nature, see State ex rel. Maines v. Baker, 254 So.2d 207 (Fla.1971); Ranter v. State, 265 So.2d 742 (Fla. 3d DCA 1972), and that the version in effect at the time of the proceeding in question controls the result. State v. Jackson, 478 So.2d 1054 (Fla.1985); Lowe v. Price, 437 So.2d 142 (Fla.1983). Indeed, the very order effecting the amendments to the rule now in question provides that they "shall govern all proceedings within their scope after 12:01 A.M. January 1, 1985." The Florida Bar Re: Amendment to Rules — Criminal Procedure, 462 So.2d 386 (Fla.1984). The problem before us, however, is the determination of the relevant "proceeding" or, otherwise stated, the "operative event" to which the rule is to be applied. See Hood v. State, 415 So.2d 133 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982); Arnold v. State, 429 So.2d 819 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983); Holmes v. Leffler, 411 So.2d 889 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982), pet. for review denied, 419 So.2d 1200 (Fla. 1982); Jackson v. Green, 402 So.2d 553 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981).
State v. Green, 473 So.2d 823, 824 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985), which was followed in McKnight, held that the key factor was "[t]he event which began the running of speedy trial time[,] . the taking of defendant into custody on June 25,1984." In our view, this analysis is incorrect. While the event which triggers the speedy trial time should be decisive in computing the length of that period — which was the issue in Arnold and Jackson, upon which Green relies — the ultimate question in this case is far different. It is the effect to be given a motion for discharge made after the period has already run: whether, as under the old rule, the defendant is to be released forthwith, or, as under the new one — which was specifically enacted expressly to obviate the perceived abuse of immediate dis charge, see Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.191 committee note (1984), reprinted in 33 F.S.A. Rule 3.191, at 191 (West Supp.1986) — the state is given an opportunity then to try him. Merely to pose the question in this way is, we think, to answer it adverse to Zabrani's position: the "operative event" must be the motion itself. Since there was plainly no "right to discharge" until the defendant moved for it, the consequences of filing that motion must be determined by the rule on the date it was made. Lowe, 437 So.2d at 144.
In accordance with this conclusion, McKnight v. Bloom, 490 So.2d 92 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986), is overruled and the petition for prohibition is denied.
We certify that this decision is in conflict with State v. Green, 473 So.2d 823 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985), and that it involves the question of great public importance we certified in McKnight:
Whether Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.191(i)(4) is applicable to a criminal case wherein the defendant is taken into custody prior to January 1,1985,12:01 A.M., the effective date of the above-stated rule.
Petition denied, conflict and question certified.
BARKDULL, HENDRY, NESBITT, DANIEL S. PEARSON, FERGUSON and JORGENSON, JJ., concur.
. The pre-1985 version of Rule 3.191(a)(1) provided for an "automatic" discharge upon motion made subsequent to the running of the speedy trial time:
(a)(1). Speedy Trial Without Demand. Except as otherwise provided by this Rule, and subject to the limitations imposed under (b)(1) and (b)(2), every person charged with a crime by indictment or information shall without demand be brought to trial within 90 days if the crime charged be a misdemeanor, or within 180 days if the crime charged be a felony, and if not brought to trial within such time shall upon motion timely filed with the court having jurisdiction and served upon the prosecuting attorney be forever discharged from the crime; provided, the court before granting such motion, shall make the required inquiry under (d)(3).
The amendments now in question eliminated this remedy by amending Rule 3.191(a)(1) and adding Rule 3.191(i), as follows:
(a)(1). Speedy Trial Without Demand. Except as otherwise provided by this Rule, and subject to the limitations imposed under (b)(1) and (b)(2), every person charged with a crime by indictment or information shall be brought to trial within 90 days if the crime charged be a misdemeanor, or within 175 days if the crime charged is a felony. If trial is not commenced within these time periods, the defendant shall be entitled to the appropriate remedy as set forth in section (i) below.
⅜ * ⅜
(i) Remedy for Failure to Try Defendant within the Specified Time.
(1) No remedy shall be granted to any defendant under this Rule until the court shall have made the required inquiry under section (d)(3).
*
(3) In the case of a defendant charged with a felony, the defendant may, at any time after the expiration of the prescribed time period, file a motion for discharge.
(4) No later than 5 days from the date of the filing of a motion for discharge, the court shall hold a hearing on the motion, and unless the court finds that one of the reasons set forth in section (d)(3) exists, shall order that the defendant be brought to trial within 10 days. If the defendant is not brought to trial within the 10 day period through no fault of the defendant, the defendant shall be forever discharged from the crime.
. An earlier petition for prohibition filed in this court was denied without opinion, Zabrani v. Coward, 476 So.2d 687 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985). Since we now overrule McKnight v. Bloom, 490 So.2d 92 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986), and are therefore in harmony with this prior result, we need not consider whether or to what extent the previous ruling implicates the law of the case doctrine. See Greene v. Massey, 384 So.2d 24 (Fla.1980); Strazzulla v. Hendrick, 177 So.2d 1 (Fla.1965). See generally Obanion v. State, 496 So.2d 977 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986).
. Both Arnold and Jackson involved an amendment which altered the length of the speedy trial period between the defendant's arrest and his motion for discharge.
. In the trial court, after Zabrani's motion for discharge was denied, he specifically agreed to a waiver of the ten day trial period because, obviously, he was not then prepared to face trial. In sum, Zabrani did not desire a speedy trial; rather, he seeks a speedy discharge. See State v. Belien, 379 So.2d 446 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980).
. Those subsequent cases which follow McKnight, e.g., State v. Parvis, 487 So.2d 1181 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986); State v. Mortimer, 490 So.2d 93 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986), of course fall with it.
.The rule nisi previously issued is discharged.