Opinion ID: 1621070
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: preservation of habeas corpus

Text: Whatever our intent behind the adoption of rule 3.850(b)(2) or other procedural regulations, we have always made clear that any restriction on habeas relief, including petitions seeking retroactive application of decisions establishing a fundamental constitutional right, could never be absolute. Although rule 3.850(b) provides that [n]o other motion shall be filed or considered pursuant to this rule if it is untimely, subdivision (h) reflects our recognition that no codification could possibly encompass every situation in which the writ of habeas corpus would be available: Habeas Corpus. An application for writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a prisoner who is authorized to apply for relief by motion pursuant to this rule shall not be entertained if it appears that the applicant has failed to apply for relief, by motion, to the court that sentenced the applicant or that the court has denied the applicant relief, unless it also appears that the remedy by motion is inadequate or ineffective to test the legality of the applicant's detention. Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.850(h) (emphasis supplied). Hence, our own postconviction rules recognize the need for flexibility in applying procedural bars. Over the years, and acting pursuant to the fundamental and constitutional nature of habeas corpus as well as the safety valve of rule 3.850(h), this Court has frequently entertained habeas petitions seeking to resolve important constitutional issues, especially in capital cases where only this Court has jurisdiction to grant the relief requested. See State v. Fourth District Court of Appeal, 697 So.2d 70, 71 (Fla.1997) (noting our exclusive jurisdiction to review all types of collateral proceedings in death penalty cases). The most common of these have proven to be claims of ineffective assistance of counsel during direct appeals to this Court. See Knight v. State, 394 So.2d 997, 999 (Fla. 1981) (The ineffective assistance of counsel allegations stem from acts or omissions before this Court, and therefore we have jurisdiction and will consider the petition for habeas corpus on its merits.). However, even a cursory review of our case law reflects that this Court has entertained successive habeas corpus petitions brought by capital defendants raising a variety of issues, including challenging (a) the erroneous standard of review applied by this Court in prior rule 3.850 appeals, see Johnston v. Moore, 789 So.2d 262 (Fla.2001) (concluding that Stephens v. State, 748 So.2d 1028 (Fla.1999), was not retroactive under Witt v. State, 387 So.2d 922 (Fla. 1980)); (b) the constitutionality of an inmate's stay on death row and of the clemency process, see King v. State, 808 So.2d 1237, 1246 (Fla.2002); (c) the propriety of various death sentences following Hitchcock v. Dugger, 481 U.S. 393, 107 S.Ct. 1821, 95 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987), see Johnson v. Dugger, 520 So.2d 565 (Fla.1988) (treating all-writs petition based on Hitchcock error as a petition for writ of habeas corpus); and (d) the validity of a direct appeal decision affirming the override of a jury's recommendation of life in light of a new decision from this Court in another case, see Mills v. Moore, 786 So.2d 532 (Fla. 2001) (addressing merits of whether Keen v. State, 775 So.2d 263 (Fla.2000), required reconsideration of Court's direct appeal affirmance of override). Notably, in none of these settings was there a dispute as to whether a successive petition for a writ of habeas corpus was a proper vehicle for raising these issues. Just recently, for example, and after entertaining successive habeas petitions claiming relief under a retroactive application of Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), on the merits for several years, this Court held that Ring is not retroactive under the Witt test. See Johnson, 904 So.2d at 412. It is worth noting that had rule 3.850(b) been construed to preclude claims such as Chandler's, it appears that numerous decisions of this Court making fundamental constitutional law changes retroactive in capital cases would not have been issued. See James v. State, 615 So.2d 668, 669 (Fla.1993) (holding that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Espinosa v. Florida, 505 U.S. 1079, 112 S.Ct. 2926, 120 L.Ed.2d 854 (1992), issued during pendency of successive postconviction appeal, should be retroactively applied); Jackson v. Dugger, 547 So.2d 1197, 1198 (Fla.1989) (holding, on successive habeas petition, that Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496, 502-03, 107 S.Ct. 2529, 96 L.Ed.2d 440 (1987), applied retroactively); Thompson v. Dugger, 515 So.2d 173, 175 (Fla.1987) (concluding, in appeal from denial of successive 3.850 motion, that Hitchcock v. Dugger, 481 U.S. 393, 398-99, 107 S.Ct. 1821, 95 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987), should be applied collaterally); Tafero v. State, 459 So.2d 1034, 1035 (Fla. 1984) (determining on appeal from rule 3.850 denial that Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982), barring death penalty for some felony murderers is such a change in the law as to be cognizable in postconviction proceedings). Of course, it is possible that in each of these instances, retroactivity would eventually have been established in a timely rule 3.850 petition, but this is far from certain, especially if the current one-year deadline for filing a postconviction claim in a capital case were also in effect. Application of rule 3.851(d)(2)(B) to preclude successive habeas petitions seeking retroactive application of a new decision by this Court or the United States Supreme Court would be particularly irrational and harsh in combination with the extraordinary procedural restrictions already in place. Ironically, death-sentenced individuals have only one year, rather than the two years for those who receive lesser sentences, in which to file their postconviction motions. Compare Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.850(b) with Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.851(d)(1). Clearly, a rigid application of rule 3.851(d)(2)(B) to severely limit retroactivity claims in successive habeas petitions would not serve the interests of justice. While most of the cases discussed above arose under rule 3.850 rather than rule 3.851, no one, including the State, has ever contended that the constitutional right to habeas corpus available to all prisoners under subdivision (h) of rule 3.850 could be denied to death-sentenced individuals whose claims were filed after the 2000 adoption of the retroactivity limitation in what is now rule 3.851(d)(2)(B). See Amends. to Fla. Rules of Crim. Proc. 3.851, 3.852 & 3.993, 772 So.2d 488, 495 (Fla.2000). Stated another way, no one has asserted that courts could constitutionally permit habeas filings to all prisoners invoking claims under decisions like Crawford, but deny the same opportunity to seek the writ to those sentenced to death and presenting the exact same Crawford claims. In addition to the obvious equal protection problem, the United States Supreme Court has held that the qualitative difference of death from all other punishments requires a correspondingly greater degree of scrutiny. California v. Ramos, 463 U.S. 992, 998-99, 103 S.Ct. 3446, 77 L.Ed.2d 1171 (1983). Precluding a claim such as Chandler's would result in lesser, not greater, scrutiny in capital cases, unless we are to turn our constitutional law upside down and provide the greater degree of scrutiny to the lesser cases.