Opinion ID: 1855142
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Inadequate Record on Direct Appeal

Text: In his fourth postconviction claim and his first and second habeas claims, Thompson contends that this Court was not provided with an adequate record during the direct appeal because some pretrial hearings and bench conferences were not transcribed and included in the appellate record. Because Thompson did not raise any inadequacy in the appellate record during direct appeal, his postconviction claim on this basis is procedurally barred. See Torres-Arboleda v. Dugger, 636 So.2d 1321, 1323-24 (Fla.1994) (finding claim that the charge conferences should have been transcribed was procedurally barred in postconviction motion). In his closely related habeas claims one and two, Thompson asserts that his appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to ensure that a complete record was compiled for the direct appeal and failing to raise this issue on direct appeal. Although claims of ineffectiveness of appellate counsel are not cognizable in postconviction motions, these claims are properly raised in Thompson's habeas petition. See, e.g., Downs, 740 So.2d at 509 n. 5. In order to grant habeas relief on the basis of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, this Court must determine first, whether the alleged omissions are of such magnitude as to constitute a serious error or substantial deficiency falling measurably outside the range of professionally acceptable performance and, second, whether the deficiency in performance compromised the appellate process to such a degree as to undermine confidence in the correctness of the result. Groover v. Singletary, 656 So.2d 424, 425 (Fla.1995) (quoting Pope v. Wainwright, 496 So.2d 798, 800 (Fla. 1986)); see, e.g., Teffeteller v. Dugger, 734 So.2d 1009, 1027 (Fla.1999). We have previously rejected a similar claim that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to have transcribed portions of the record, including parts of voir dire, the charge conference, and a discussion of whether the defendant would testify. See Ferguson v. Singletary, 632 So.2d 53, 58 (Fla.1993). We reasoned that [h]ad appellate counsel asserted error which went uncorrected because of the missing record, or had [the defendant] pointed to errors in this petition, this claim may have had merit. Id. However, because the defendant point[ed] to no specific error which occurred during the portions of the record that remained untranscribed, we concluded that appellate counsel was not ineffective. Id.; see also Turner v. Dugger, 614 So.2d 1075, 1079-80 (Fla.1992) (finding defendant had not been prejudiced by failure of counsel to have charge conference transcribed). As with the defendant in Ferguson, Thompson has not pointed to any errors that occurred during the untranscribed portions of the proceedings. Therefore, these habeas claims are without merit.