Case Name: Ronald TROWELL, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1998-01-20
Citations: 706 So. 2d 332
Docket Number: No. 95-3082
Parties: Ronald TROWELL, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: ALLEN, MICKLE, DAVIS, BENTON, VAN NORTWICK and PADOVANO, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 706
Pages: 332–346

Head Matter:
Ronald TROWELL, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 95-3082.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
Jan. 20, 1998.
Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, P. Douglas Brinkmeyer, Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, James W. Rogers, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

Opinion:
ON REHEARING EN BANC
ERVIN, Judge.
Ronald Trowell appeals the denial of his motion, filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, for post-conviction relief and belated appeal of the judgment of conviction based upon his guilty plea to armed burglary and first-degree murder. As grounds therefor, appellant alleged that his court-appointed counsel (1) failed to honor his request to call witnesses to testify on his behalf before entry of the plea, (2) failed to raise an objection that appellant was under the influence of medication at the time of the plea, and (3) failed to file a notice of appeal, contrary to his request. Grounds one and two of the motion allege insufficient facts .to state a basis for relief. Therefore, we affirm the trial court's order with respect to these claims without further discussion. We reverse, however, the lower court's ruling on appellant's claim of entitlement to a belated appeal.
In denying the defendant's motion for belated appeal, the trial court cited Thomas v. State, 626 So.2d 1093 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993), and concluded that the defendant was not entitled to an appeal, because he had entered into a negotiated guilty plea for a life sentence and waived his right to appeal the matters relating to the judgment. We cannot agree.
The court's decision in Thomas is inconsistent with a substantial body of case law from this court and other district courts of appeal. See, e.g., Moore v. State, 661 So.2d 921 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995); Kiser v. State, 649 So.2d 333 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995); Owens v. State, 643 So.2d 105 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994); Clayton v. State, 635 So.2d 48 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994); Hudson v. State, 596 So.2d 1213 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992); Short v. State, 596 So.2d 502 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992); Courson v. State, 652 So.2d 512 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995); Gunn v. State, 612 So.2d 643 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993), on remand, 643 So.2d 677 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994); Viqueira v. Roth, 591 So.2d 1147 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992). To the extent that Thomas requires a defendant to state in a rule 3.850 motion for belated appeal what issues he or she would have raised on appeal, and whether or how those issues would have been dispositive, or how appellant was otherwise prejudiced by his counsel's failure tó file a notice of appeal, we recede from it as being contrary to controlling precedent from this court and the Florida Supreme Court.
The Florida Supreme Court addressed the reason why a defendant need not state meritorious issues in a 3.850 motion as a precondition to his or her right to a belated appeal from a criminal conviction in Baggett v. Wainwright, 229 So.2d 239 (Fla.1969). In that ease, the court devised the following procedure to determine one's eligibility to a belated appeal. The defendant was required to file a petition for writ of habeas corpus before the appropriate appellate court, wherein only two issues were pertinent for resolution: first, did the defendant, if aware of his or her right to appeal, timely express the desire to appeal to the court, defense attorney or other appropriate person, and second, did the facts show a deprivation, through state action, of this right guaranteed to the defendant? Id. at 241.
In outlining this process, the court specifically rejected the state's contention that the defendant must make a preliminary showing of arguable points on the merits in order to be entitled to an appeal. In so doing, it relied on Rodriquez v. United States, 395 U.S. 327, 89 S.Ct. 1715, 23 L.Ed.2d. 340 (1969), wherein the United States Supreme Court had rejected a similar argument. The Baggett court relied not only on Rodriquez, but also on two other Supreme Court decisions, Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811 (1963), and Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), dealing with an indigent defendant's right to appeal.
The facts in Rodriquez disclose that the indigent prisoner had filed a motion for post-conviction relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, the federal counterpart to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, seeking a belated appeal, alleging that his retained counsel had fraudulently deprived him of his right to appeal. After the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's denial of the requested relief for the reason that the motion, contrary to its rule, failed to disclose what errors the petitioner would have raised on appeal, the Supreme Court granted cer-tiorari and reversed the order of denial. In reaching its decision, the Court noted that an appeal from a criminal judgment of conviction is a matter of right. It also emphasized the disparity in legal ability which exists between a pro se litigant and a defendant with funds represented by a retained lawyer, observing:
Those whose education has been limited and those, like petitioner, who lack facility in the English language might have grave difficulty in making even a summary statement of points to be raised on appeal. Moreover, they may not even be aware of errors which occurred at trial. They would thus be deprived of their only chance to take an appeal even though they have never had the assistance of counsel in preparing one.... [T]he Ninth Circuit's requirement makes an indigent defendant face "the danger of conviction because he does not know how to establish his innocence." Moreover, the Ninth Circuit rule would require the sentencing court to screen out supposedly unmeritorious appeals in ways this Court rejected in Coppedge [v. United States, 369 U.S. 438, 82 S.Ct. 917, 8 L.Ed.2d 21 (1962)]. Those whose right to appeal has been frustrated should be treated exactly like any other appellants; they should not be given an additional hurdle to clear just because their rights were violated at some earlier stage in the proceedings. Accordingly, we hold that the courts below erred in rejecting petitioner's application for relief because of his failure to specify the points he would raise were his right to appeal reinstated.
Rodriquez, 395 U.S. at 330, 89 S.Ct. at 1717, 23 L.Ed.2d at 344 (emphasis added).
As the Court's analysis makes clear, there should be no difference between a defendant's right to a belated appeal, if the evidence discloses that the delay was not attrib utable to his or her own neglect, and the right to a timely appeal, insofar as any requirement that the defendant make a preliminary showing of merit. In both cases, a statement of meritorious issues is .irrelevant to one's entitlement to appeal. Similarly, there should be no difference between a defendant's right to a belated appeal from a conviction following trial or after a plea, because, in either instance, if the appeal had been timely filed, an initial statement of arguable points would be irrelevant to the right to appeal.
Although Baggett involved a belated appeal following a jury trial, the opinion, makes clear, with its references to Anders and Douglas, and its specific adoption of Rodriquez, that a defendant need not make a merit showing in order to seek a belated appeal from a conviction based on either a plea or verdict of guilt. Indeed, if the Florida Supreme Court had made the distinction the lower court approved below, its decision would have been at clear variance with the broad constitutional precepts announced in jRodriquez, Douglas and Anders.
In Douglas, the court held that an indigent prisoner was entitled to the assistance of counsel on appeal, that the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment demanded no less, and that a state could not deny the indigent such.right by requiring him or her to make a preliminary showing of merit. In vacating the judgment of the California appellate court, which had denied the defendant the assistance of counsel on appeal because it had gone through the record and come to the conclusion that "no good whatever could be served by appointment of counsel," the United States Supreme Court made the following pertinent comments:
The present case, where counsel was denied petitionérs on appeal, shows that the discrimination is not between "possibly good and obviously bad cases," but between cases where the rich man can require the court to listen to argument of counsel before deciding on the merits, but a poor man cannot. There is lácking that equality demanded by the Fourteenth Amendment where the rich man, who appeals as of right, enjoys the benefit of counsel's examination into the record, research of the law, and marshalling of arguments on his behalf, while the indigent, already burdened by a preliminary- determination that his case is without merit, is forced to shift for himself.- The indigent, where the' record is unclear or the errors are hidden, has only the right to a meaningless ritual, while the rich man has a meaningful appeal.
Douglas, 372 U.S. at 357-88, 83 S.Ct. at 816, 9 L.Ed.2d at 815 (emphasis added).
The Court applied the same reasoning in another case decided the samé day, wherein it was asked whether , due process was offended by the state of Washington's practice of denying a transcript of the record at public expense to an indigent appellant, based upon a trial court's findings that the assignments of error weré, in its judgment, frivolous and the evidence of guilt overwhelming. In striking down the practice of allowing the trial court to be virtually the sole arbiter of whether the appeal had merit, the Court explained: .
In all cases the duty of the State is to provide the indigent as adequate and effective an appellate review as that given appellants with funds — the State must provide the indigent defendant with means of presenting his contentions to the appellate court which are as good as those available to a nonindigent defendant with similar contentions.
Draper v. Washington, 372 U.S. 487, 496, 83 S.Ct. 774, 779, 9 L.Ed.2d 899, 906 (1963).
Four years later in Anders, the United States Supreme Court established the procedure to be followed once appellate counsel has been appointed and counsel determines that the appeal is frivolous. In order to protect an appellant's constitutional rights to a fair trial and the assistance of counsel for his or her defense, counsel who makes a representation of no merit may request permission to withdraw and must accompany the request with a brief referring to anything in the record that might support the appeal. A copy of the brief must be served on the indigent, and time allowed for him or her to raise any points that he or she chooses. Thereafter, the appellate court "proceeds, after a full examination of all the 'proceedings, to decide whether the ease is wholly frivolous." Anders, 386 U.S. at 744, 87 S.Ct. at 1400, 18 L.Ed.2d at 498 (emphasis added).
- Aware that Baggett had bottomed its holding on constitutional pronouncements of the United States Supreme Court which emphasized that the Fourteenth Amendment proscribes disparate treatment of indigent and wealthy defendants in regard to their right to appeal, the district courts of appeal in Florida routinely, until 1987, when confronted with petitions for writs of habeas corpus, designated commissioners to determine the truthfulness of the defendants' representations that they had been denied a right to appeal upon timely request. In so proceeding, the courts' opinions made no distinction whether the conviction was based upon a plea or a finding of guilt following trial.
The first apparent departure from established precedent occurred in Bridges v. Dugger, 518 So.2d 298 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987), in which the Second District Court of Appeal denied a petition for writ of habeas corpus on the ground that the petitioner had entered a plea of guilty without reserving any appellate issues, had received a sentence that was facially legal, which was accepted without contemporaneous objection, and had not moved to -withdraw the plea before imposition of sentence. In reaching its decision, the court recognized the applicability of the United States Supreme Court's decisions in Anders and Rodriquez, as well as the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Baggett; yet, with little analysis, it concluded, as had the state courts whose judgments were vacated in Douglas and Draper, that the appeal would be frivolous. Several more recent appellate decisions have taken the same approach as the court in Bridges. See, e.g., Thomas v. State, 626 So.2d 1093 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993); Gonzalez v. State, 685 So.2d 975 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997); Loadholt v. State, 683 So.2d 596 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996); Zduniak v. State, 620 So.2d 1083 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993).
Bridges and its progeny are based primarily on Robinson v. State, 373 So.2d 898 (Fla. 1979), wherein the Florida Supreme Court held that a valid guilty plea waives the right to appeal all issues arising before the entry of the plea. The court nonetheless noted a few limited exceptions which may be appealed regardless of the entry of a plea, such as (1) lack of subject matter jurisdiction, (2) illegality of the sentence, (3) failure of the state to abide by the plea agreement, and (4) the voluntary and intelligent nature of the plea. Id. at 902.
We note, however, that when the Florida Supreme Court revisited the procedure for obtaining belated appeals in State v. District Court of Appeal, First District, 569 So.2d 439 (Fla.1990), the court left intact Baggett's pronouncement rejecting any requirement of meritorious grounds for appellate relief as a condition precedent to one's right to appeal, despite the existence of Robinson. Moreover, the opinion made no distinction between appeals from convictions following pleas or verdicts of guilt. Indeed, nothing in the opinion discloses whether the request for an appeal had followed a trial or a plea.
More recently, the Florida Supreme Court again addressed the procedure for obtaining belated appeals in Amendments to the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure, 685 So.2d 773 (Fla.1996) (on reh'g). The court considered chapter 96-248, section 4, at 954, Laws of Florida, creating section 924.051, Florida Statutes (Supp.1996), - which purported to preclude a defendant who has pled nolo con-tendere or guilty without expressly reserving his or her right to appeal a legally dispositive issue from appealing his or her judgment and sentence. The court concluded that the new statute does not foreclose a defendant who has entered a plea from appealing the limited exceptions set forth in Robinson. Id. at 774-75. Moreover, we note that in adopting the revisions to Florida Rule of Appellate Proce dure 9.140(j), dealing with petitions for belated appeal, the court included Committee Notes indicating that the revision was intended to reinstate the procedure set forth in Baggett. Id. at 807.
Based on our reading of Baggett and Amendments to the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure, we are of the firm belief that the only relevant inquiry, once a request for a belated appeal is made, is whether the defendant was informed of his or her right to an appeal and thereafter timely made a request for an appeal to his or her attorney or other appropriate person. If the appeal proceeds from the entry of an unconditional guilty or nolo contendere plea, it may, due to appellant's failure to submit any issue cognizable under Robinson, eventually result in dismissal by an appellate court, but issues of merit are not required as a precondition to the appeal. Any procedure to the contrary is a clear violation of the constitutional requirements of substantial equality and fair process for the indigent and affluent alike, under Rodriquez, Douglas and Anders.
In so saying, we consider that the procedure the lower court approved compounds the practical difficulties confronting any pro se litigant attempting to marshal legal issues necessary to entitle him or her to the "one and only appeal an indigent has as of right" from a conviction. Douglas, 372 U.S. at 357, 83 S.Ct. at 816, 9 L.Ed.2d at 814. Moreover, it runs contrary to the continuing concern expressed in the relevant United States Supreme Court decisions, e.g., Rodriquez, Douglas, Draper and Anders, recognizing that an affluent defendant who has the means to secure counsel to perfect an appeal is not required to state meritorious issues as a precondition to such appeal; while an indigent, who cannot personally retain an attorney, is required to file issues of merit before his or her appeal may be perfected. The Supreme Court has continuously rejected such disparate treatment.
Although it may be difficult for us to determine from this record what chance the defendant may have for success on the merits, any such uninformed prognosis is not the proper test of one's entitlement to an appeal. As observed in Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75, 87, 109 S.Ct. 346, 353-54, 102 L.Ed.2d 300, 313 (1988) (footnote omitted): "Mere speculation that counsel would not have made a difference is no substitute for actual appellate advocacy, particularly when the court's speculation is unguided by the adversary process." Moreover, the " '[ajctual or constructive denial of the assistance of counsel altogether is legally presumed to result in prejudice.' " Id. at 88, 109 S.Ct. at 354, 102 L. Ed.2d at 313 (quoting Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 692, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2067, 80 L.Ed.2d 674, 696 (1984)).
We note that the procedure the lower court endorsed, if approved, could ultimately result in the denial of Trowell's only right to a direct appeal, to which he would otherwise have been entitled had the appeal been timely filed, together with his right to the aid of an attorney. The uncounseled defendant at bar, as the defendant in Rodriquez, "may not even be aware of errors which [may have] occurred." Rodriquez, 395 U.S. at 330, 89 S.Ct. at 1717, 23 L.Ed.2d at 344.
Finally, such procedure is, in fact, no less offensive to due process than the situations which transpired in Rodriquez, Douglas and Anders, because Trowell's court-appointed trial counsel has apparently conceded that Trowell requested him to file an appeal immediately following the entry of his plea and sentence. In his response to the motion for relief, trial counsel replies merely that because Trowell's conviction was the product of a plea-bargain agreement, and the plea was freely given, "the failure to honor the timely request for an appeal is inconsequential." Thus, the only difference between the practice the United States Supreme Court rejected in Anders and that which the court below appears to sanction is that the trial attorney may trump the Anders procedure by declaring his client's appeal to be of no merit because it followed an unconditional guilty plea. Consequently, the defendant, thereafter unassisted by counsel, must first file sufficiently stated errors before his appeal may proceed; a procedure which would be entirely irrelevant to his appellate rights if his lawyer had simply honored his client's request and filed the notice.
Nevertheless, because our decision today conflicts with Bridges v. Dugger, 518 So.2d 298 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987), and its progeny, Gonzalez v. State, 685 So.2d 975 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997); Loadholt v. State, 683 So.2d 596 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996); and Zduniak v. State, 620 So.2d 1083 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993), we certify our conflict therewith.
In that Trowell's trial attorney has not denied that his client timely requested him to file an appeal, we reverse the order of denial as it relates to this issue. In light of the revisions the Florida Supreme Court made to Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.140(j)(l), effective January 1, 1997, which provides that petitions seeking belated appeal shall be filed in the appellate courts, we now construe Trowell's motion as a petition for belated appeal properly filed with this court pursuant to the rule. We grant the petition and direct the . clerk of this, court to file an order in the Circuit Court of Columbia County in accordance with rule 9.140(j)(5)(D). We also relinquish jurisdiction to the trial court to determine whether Trowell is indigent and entitled to the appointment of counsel for the appeal.
AFFIRMED in part and REVERSED in part.
ALLEN, MICKLE, DAVIS, BENTON, VAN NORTWICK and PADOVANO, JJ., concur.
WEBSTER, J., concurs with written opinion, in which BARFIELD, C.J., ALLEN, VAN NORTWICK and PADOVANO, JJ., concur.
BOOTH, J., dissents without written opinion.
JOANOS, J.", dissents with opinion, in which BOOTH, MINER, WOLF and KAHN, JJ., concur.
MINER, J., dissents with opinion, in which BOOTH, JOANOS, WOLF and KAHN, JJ., concur.
WOLF J., dissents with opinion, in which BOOTH and MINER, JJ., concur.
KAHN, J., dissents with opinion, in which BOOTH, MINER and WOLF, JJ., concur.
LAWRENCE, J., recused.
. In 1990, the supreme court altered this practice by requiring that a 3.850 motion be filed before the trial court. State v. District Ct. of App., First Dist., 569 So.2d 439, 442 (Fla. 1990). The procedure set forth in Baggett, however, has been reinstated effective January 1, 1997. See Fla. R.App. P. 9.140(j)(l); Amendments to Fla. Rules of Appellate Proc., 685 So.2d 773 (Fla. 1996) (onreh'g).
. The second requirement has since been eliminated. See State v. District Ct. of App., First Dist.; State v. Meyer, 430 So.2d 440 (Fla.1983); Joseph v. State, 451 So.2d 886 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984).
. Although Bridges does not actually cite Robinson, it relies on case law that does.
. In his dissenting opinion, Judge Joanos refers to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.172(c)(4). to support his position that a defendant who pleads guilty does not have an unfettered right to appeal. This rule addresses the judge's voluntariness determination and does not preclude a defendant from appealing the issues set forth in Robinson.
. This is consistent with the procedure this court articulated in Stone v. State, 688 So.2d 1006 (Fla. 1st DCA) (on motion to dismiss), review denied, 697 So.2d 512 (Fla. 1997), which is required when reviewing an appeal under Anders following a guilty or nolo plea. This court denied the state's motion to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the defendant had failed to reserve a Robinson issue below, holding that such failure may require dismissal on appeal, but not dismissal before appeal.
Upon the completion of briefing, we will examine the briefs and the record to determine whether a Robinson issue exists. If we reach a negative conclusion, we will dismiss the appeal with a citation to Robinson. If we conclude that such an issue does exist, we will then determine whether the issue has been preserved. If it has, we will address the merits. If it has not, we will affirm without reaching the merits.
Id. at 1008. Accord Miller v. State, 697 So.2d 586 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997) (applying Stone).