Opinion ID: 75827
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The State Post-Conviction Proceedings

Text: 7 Sanchez-Velasco's conviction and death sentence were affirmed on direct appeal in 1990. Sanchez-Velasco I, 570 So.2d at 916. In May of 1993, lawyers representing him filed a motion pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 seeking to have his conviction and death sentence overturned. CCRC, which generally handles the state post-conviction representation of inmates sentenced to death in Florida, could not represent Sanchez-Velasco because of a conflict of interest stemming from a CCRC attorney's representation of a client in a case in which Sanchez-Velasco was a witness. As a result, Sanchez-Velasco was represented by lawyers from the Volunteer Lawyers Resource Center, and by Michael Bowen, an attorney who handled the case pro bono. (The lawyers from the VLRC eventually withdrew from their representation of Sanchez-Velasco in the post-conviction proceeding, leaving just Mr. Bowen as his attorney.) In any event, the Rule 3.850 motion was filed, and initially litigated, the old fashioned way — with Sanchez-Velasco's knowledge and consent. 8 Notwithstanding his earlier consent to the filing of the Rule 3.850 motion, in March and April of 1994 Sanchez-Velasco wrote two letters to the Governor of Florida asking that he be permitted to waive his right to challenge his conviction and sentence in the ongoing post-conviction proceedings. The Governor forwarded those letters to the state trial court, which appointed three experts to examine Sanchez-Velasco and determine if he was mentally competent to waive the post-conviction proceedings. 2 Sanchez-Velasco's brother then filed a next friend petition with the Florida Supreme Court to stay all proceedings that would expedite the execution. That petition was denied without elaboration. Sanchez v. Wilson, 639 So.2d 980 (Fla.1994). In May of 1994, Sanchez-Velasco wrote a letter to the state trial court withdrawing his request to waive his right to state post-conviction proceedings, but he later renewed his waiver request in a letter to the Governor dated June 20, 1995. In that letter, Sanchez-Velasco explained that he had withdrawn his initial waiver request because his lawyers had surrounded him with family who persuaded him not to drop his post-conviction proceedings. 9 In October 1995, the state trial court held a colloquy with Sanchez-Velasco about his request to forego any further attack on his conviction and sentence. When the court asked Sanchez-Velasco whether he wanted to waive his post-conviction proceedings, he demanded the right to explain himself before he would answer that question. The court told Sanchez-Velasco that he would have an opportunity to explain but that he must first answer the question. When Sanchez-Velasco repeatedly refused to answer before being allowed to explain, the trial court concluded Sanchez-Velasco did not sincerely want to waive his state post-conviction proceedings and therefore allowed the Rule 3.850 proceeding to go forward. Eventually, the court set an evidentiary hearing on two of the claims raised in the Rule 3.850 motion. 10 One of those two claims for which the evidentiary hearing was scheduled asserted that Sanchez-Velasco had been incompetent to stand trial and had been erroneously determined to be competent because his evaluating psychologists and psychiatrists had lacked information about his background and medical history. In support of that claim, Sanchez-Velasco's lawyers planned to introduce testimony from two experts — Drs. Whyte and Herrera— who had at Sanchez-Velasco's lawyers' request each evaluated Sanchez-Velasco twice, first in 1993 and again in 1994, and had concluded that he suffered from significant psychological disorders that rendered him mentally incompetent. Sanchez-Velasco II, 702 So.2d at 226. Copies of their 1993 reports had been attached to Sanchez-Velasco's Rule 3.850 motion, and copies of their 1994 reports had been attached to the next-friend petition Sanchez-Velasco's brother had filed that year in the Florida Supreme Court. 3 11 On October 24, 1996, at the beginning of the evidentiary hearing, and before any evidence was presented, Sanchez-Velasco moved to discharge his counsel, Mr. Bowen, and again asked to be allowed to waive the post-conviction proceedings. The state trial court observed that Sanchez-Velasco appears very intelligent and appears to be very competent but ordered a competency evaluation out of an abundance of caution. Sanchez-Velasco II, 702 So.2d at 226. The next day, Sanchez-Velasco was evaluated by Dr. Sonia Ruiz, a clinical psychologist. She concluded that he was mentally competent to participate in legal proceedings, consult with his lawyer, and understand the consequences of his decisions. Id. at 226-27. She further found that he did not suffer from any major mental illness or defect. Id. Dr. Ruiz was the twelfth expert who had examined Sanchez-Velasco for mental competency for one purpose or another while his case was in the state courts, and she was the tenth one to find him to be competent. Id. at 227-29. 4 12 After receiving Dr. Ruiz's report, the state trial court held a hearing on October 25, 1996, at which it conducted a detailed Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975), type of inquiry to determine whether Sanchez-Velasco was competent to waive the post-conviction attack on his conviction and sentence. Sanchez-Velasco II, 702 So.2d at 227. It did so, because that is the procedure the Florida Supreme Court has mandated in cases where death row inmates seek to drop state post-conviction proceedings. See Durocher v. Singletary, 623 So.2d 482, 485 (Fla.1993). During its inquiry, the court asked Sanchez-Velasco if he understood that: (1) by waiving his claims he would lose all right to future appeals of his conviction and sentence; (2) if he prevailed on his claims he would receive a new sentencing hearing; and (3) once his claims were waived he would not have the right to reinstate them in the future. Sanchez-Velasco confirmed that he understood each of those propositions, and when the court asked him again if he wished to withdraw his appeal, he stated that he did. 13 On October 31, 1996, the state trial court entered an order finding that Sanchez-Velasco was competent to discharge his counsel and dismiss the Rule 3.850 motion, and it dismissed the proceedings. Sanchez-Velasco's former lawyer, Bowen, appealed that order, but the Florida Supreme Court affirmed it in December 1997. Sanchez-Velasco II, 702 So.2d at 228. In doing so, the Florida Supreme Court concluded that the procedures the trial court had used to determine whether Sanchez-Velasco was competent to dismiss his collateral counsel and post-conviction proceedings complied with the requirements it had set forth in Durocher v. Singletary, 623 So.2d 482 (Fla.1993). The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari review in October of 1998. See Sanchez-Velasco v. Florida, 525 U.S. 811, 119 S.Ct. 42, 142 L.Ed.2d 33 (1998).