Opinion ID: 1106020
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Misadvice About the Collateral Consequences of Future Crimes

Text: As several district courts have recognized, a fundamental difference exists between incorrect advice about collateral consequences of a plea such as deportation and loss of employment and incorrect advice about future crimes. In the former cases, the consequences, while collateral to the conviction, are immediate, result directly from the plea at issue, and occur regardless of the defendant's future conduct. When the consequence is a sentence enhancement for a future crime, however, it is contingent on the commission of another felony, which may never occur. It is the defendant's decision to commit another felony, not the wrong advice, that produces the enhanced sentence. In this case, counsel's wrong advice about the potential for future sentence enhancement did not affect Bates's 1990 sentence. Cf. Burnham v. State, 702 So.2d 303, 303 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997) (addressing claim of affirmative misadvice regarding actual time to be served). Nor did it have collateral civil effects such as deportation or loss of employment. See, e.g., Sallato, 519 So.2d at 605 (addressing claim of misadvice about whether the plea could result in deportation); State v. Johnson, 615 So.2d 179, 180-81 (Fla. 3d DCA 1993) (addressing claim of erroneous advice that a plea and withholding of adjudication would not jeopardize the defendant's employment as a corrections officer); see also LaMonica v. State, 732 So.2d 1175, 1176 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999) (addressing claim that counsel erroneously stated that statutory sexual offender reporting requirements did not apply). Bates never would have been sentenced as a habitual offender had he not decided to commit another felony. His counsel's advice, wrong though it was, would not have affected him at all. Every person has a duty to follow the law and must suffer the consequences of failing to do so. See Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 559, 574, 85 S.Ct. 476, 13 L.Ed.2d 487 (1965); Stansel v. State, 825 So.2d 1007, 1009-10 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002); see also Collier v. State, 796 So.2d 629, 630 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001) (stating that counsel is entitled to assume that the defendant will obey the law in the future). To recognize Bates's allegation as a valid ineffective assistance claim would contradict this fundamental principle. Defense counsel need not anticipate a defendant's future criminal conduct. Accordingly, I would hold that defense counsel's wrong advice that a defendant's plea cannot be used to enhance the sentence for a crime not yet committed does not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel.