Opinion ID: 1685081
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: alleged grand juror bias

Text: Next, Muhammad claims his appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise an issue regarding the alleged bias of the grand jury that indicted him. Before trial, Bernstein filed a motion to abate the indictment because several of the individuals on the grand jury were allegedly employed by the Department of Corrections or had been employed by the Department of Corrections, or had close relatives who were employed by the Department of Corrections. In Rogers v. State, 511 So.2d 526 (Fla.1987), this Court rejected an appellant's claim that a member of his grand jury was biased, because [e]ven assuming arguendo that this grand juror was biased and participated in returning the indictment, the petit jury's subsequent guilty verdict rendered any resulting error presumptively harmless. Id. at 531; see also Porter v. Wainwright, 805 F.2d 930, 941-42 (11th Cir.1986). Therefore, even if Muhammad's grand jury was biased, the fact that he was subsequently convicted by the petit jury would render any error in allowing biased members on the grand jury presumptively harmless. Moreover, there was ample evidence to show probable cause to indict Muhammad for the charge in question. Thus, regardless of potential bias by the grand jury, probable cause existed to indict Muhammad on this charge even by a non-biased grand jury. Cf. Cummings v. State, 715 So.2d 944, 947 (Fla.1998) (holding that there was no error in failure to dismiss indictment where defendant argued the indictment was based on perjured testimony because there was other sufficient evidence showing probable cause to indict). Therefore, we deny relief on this claim.