Title: Alvord v. State
Citation: 396 So. 2d 184
Docket Number: 57810
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: April 9, 1981

396 So. 2d 184 (1981)
Gary Eldon ALVORD, a/K/a Paul Robert Brock, a/K/a Gary Eldon Venczel, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 57810.

Supreme Court of Florida.
April 9, 1981.
Rehearing Denied April 16, 1981.
*185 William J. Sheppard, Jacksonville, Stephen D. Stitt, Gainesville, Jack Greenberg, New York City, and Anthony G. Amsterdam, Stanford, Cal., for appellant.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Carolyn M. Snurkowski, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
This is an appeal by the appellant, Gary Eldon Alvord, from a denial of post-conviction relief. Alvord was convicted in 1974 of three counts of first-degree murder for the strangulation of three women.
This is the third time this cause has been before this Court for review. An abbreviated chronology of the judicial proceedings is as follows.
The appellant was convicted of the murder charges on April 9, 1974. On September 17, 1975, this Court affirmed those convictions in its decision reported in Alvord v. State, 322 So. 2d 533 (Fla. 1975). Appellant thereupon sought review by certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, which was denied on July 6, 1976. Alvord v. Florida, 428 U.S. 923, 96 S. Ct. 3234, 49 L. Ed. 2d 1226, rehearing denied, 429 U.S. 874, 97 S. Ct. 195, 50 L. Ed. 2d 157 (1976).
In his first collateral attack upon this conviction, appellant filed a motion for reduction of sentence under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b) on November 29, 1976. The trial court denied the motion, finding it was without jurisdiction. Appellant then sought review of this action by petition for writ of mandamus, which was denied by this Court in an unreported order on March 10, 1977.
The instant case arises from a second collateral attack upon the convictions, commenced on October 6, 1978, by filing a motion for post-conviction relief under the provisions of Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, to which two supplements were filed. Consideration was delayed by these supplements and by appellant's pro se motion that his counsel withdraw. Appellant contends in his motion that:
(1) The trial court failed to respond to appellant's pro se request to have the public defender removed as counsel and have private counsel appointed.
(2) Trial counsel was incompetent because he did not file a notice of intent to claim insanity as a defense.
(3) The trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury on its own initiative that appellant had a past history of mental illness, had previously been adjudicated insane, and should be presumed insane until such presumption was overcome by proof beyond every reasonable doubt.
*186 (4) Counsel on the initial appeal was incompetent for failing to raise the following issues: (a) whether the trial court erred in setting aside its order sending appellant to a state institution for observation to determine his sanity; (b) whether the trial court erred in allowing Dr. Ames Robey to examine defendant and testify regarding defendant's mental condition; and (c) whether the trial court erred in allowing Dr. Robey to testify regarding defendant's past criminal history during the sentencing phase.
(5) He was denied an adequate psychiatric examination on the question of his sanity on the date of the offenses.
(6) The interrogation of appellant by a Michigan detective was contrary to the principles set forth in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966), because the detective neglected to read appellant the warnings as printed on the police form and failed to have appellant execute a written waiver of his constitutional rights.
(7) The death penalty has been administered and applied in a manner inconsistent with the principles in State v. Dixon, 283 So. 2d 1 (Fla. 1973), and Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U.S. 242, 96 S. Ct. 2960, 49 L. Ed. 2d 913 (1976).
(8) The death penalty in Florida has been and is being applied pursuant to a practice which discriminates on the grounds of sex and poverty.
(9) Prosecutors and courts employ the death sentence as a penalty for the exercise of a defendant's right to a jury trial by a regular and uniform practice of declining to seek or impose the death sentence when the defendant pleads guilty although those cases are factually indistinguishable from those in which the defendant pleads not guilty and is sentenced to death after a jury trial.
(10) The imposition of the death sentence in this case is cruel and unusual because of all the relevant facts, including appellant's lengthy history of mental illness.
(11) Section 921.141, Florida Statutes (1973), is a matter of judicial practice and procedure and consequently violates article V, section 2(a), of the Florida Constitution.
(12) The death penalty is unconstitutional as applied to appellant because it is administered arbitrarily and discriminatorily to punish the killing of white persons as opposed to black persons.
(13) It was error for the trial court to fail to excuse for cause a venireman who indicated he felt everyone convicted of first-degree murder should receive the death penalty. The venireman was later excused peremptorily by appellant.
(14) The death sentence was imposed although none of the aggravating circumstances found to support the death sentence were alleged in the indictment and none were found to exist beyond a reasonable doubt.
(15) The consideration of mitigating circumstances was impermissibly restricted by the trial judge, contrary to the standards of Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S. Ct. 2954, 57 L. Ed. 2d 973 (1978).
After an evidentiary hearing and a clearly exhaustive review of the record, the trial judge denied this petition for post-conviction relief. The trial judge recognized that the principal assertion was directed to the competency and effectiveness of counsel at both trial and appellate levels. In his extensive order, the trial judge made the following specific findings:
On the issue of trial counsel's asserted incompetence for not filing a notice of intent to claim insanity as a defense, the trial court found:
The trial court concluded that it had:
The principal assertion by appellant is that he was denied effective assistance of trial counsel because his counsel was unable to convince him to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. We find the record clearly sustains the finding of the trial judge and shows that the original trial counsel competently, diligently, conscientiously, and effectively represented the appellant. Counsel did all that could be done to provide appellant with effective representation and a fair trial, given the facts and circumstances of this cause. In our view, the representation provided appellant met the standard for effective assistance of counsel articulated by this Court in Knight v. State, 394 So. 2d 997 (Fla. 1981).
The other issue which warrants discussion concerns the testimony of the psychiatrist, Dr. Robey, at the sentencing stage of the proceedings. The decision of Smith v. Estelle, 602 F.2d 694 (5th Cir.1979), cert. granted, 445 U.S. 926, 100 S. Ct. 1311, 63 L. Ed. 2d 758 (1980), relied on substantially by the appellant, was decided subsequent to our initial review of this cause and, in our view, is not applicable. Smith held that statements made to a psychiatrist appointed to examine the defendant could not in that specific case be used in aggravation in the sentencing proceeding. We find that Smith does not apply because the issue of the propriety of Dr. Robey's testimony was raised in the initial appeal before this Court, although on another theory of law, and rejected in our original opinion on the merits. 322 So. 2d  at 539. Post-conviction relief is not available for a reappeal or a rereview or to raise issues that could have been raised on the initial appeal. Adams v. State, 380 So. 2d 423 (Fla. 1980); Sullivan v. State, 372 So. 2d 938 (Fla. 1979); Spenkelink v. State, 350 So. 2d 85 (Fla.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 960, 98 S. Ct. 492, 54 L. Ed. 2d 320 (1977). Further, the Smith decision is not a change of law that warrants post-conviction relief under the doctrine we expressed in Witt v. State, 387 So. 2d 922 (Fla. 1980). Even if it were applicable, Smith is distinguishable since in Alvord's case the history and critical information related at the sentencing proceeding by the psychiatrist Robey were obtained in Michigan well before the commission of the instant criminal offenses and were proper to negate the argument of mitigating factors relating to mental condition.
We find the record fails to support the allegation that appellate counsel was incompetent because he did not properly present the legal issue of appellant's competency and the testimony of the psychiatrist. The ineffectiveness of appellate counsel cannot be based upon the failure of counsel to assert a theory of law which was not at the time of the appeal fully articulated or established in the law. In our view, the appellant was provided with effective assistance of counsel on the initial appeal of this cause.
The remaining issues are without merit and have been disposed of by this court in previous proceedings or could have been raised in the initial appeal.
The order of the trial judge denying post-conviction relief is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
SUNDBERG, C.J., and ADKINS, BOYD, OVERTON, ENGLAND, ALDERMAN and McDONALD, JJ., concur.