Opinion ID: 1636065
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Pleading Requirements

Text: To raise a facially sufficient claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must allege specific facts meeting both of Strickland's prongs. Thus, the defendant must allege both that counsel's performance was deficient and that the deficiency prejudiced the defendant. See Jones v. State, 845 So.2d 55, 65 (Fla.2003) (To be entitled to an evidentiary hearing on a claim of ineffective assistance, the defendant must allege specific facts that are not conclusively rebutted by the record and which demonstrate a deficiency in performance that prejudiced the defendant.). In light of our recognition of a claim of ineffective assistance based on erroneous advice about the effect of a plea on a subsequent sentence imposed for a crime committed before the plea, we must delineate the pleading requirements. As stated above, what distinguishes this claim from the one we rejected in Dickey is the imminence of the peril. That is, at the time of the plea, the defendant has an extant basis for concern about the effect of that plea because he already has committed another crime. To raise a facially sufficient claim, however, a defendant must do more than allege that counsel provided erroneous advice. A defendant must plead that (1) before entering the plea, he informed defense counsel that he committed another crime for which he had not yet been sentenced, (2) he explained to counsel the nature of the crime, (3) counsel erroneously advised the defendant about the potential use of the conviction to enhance a subsequent sentence for that other crime (explaining why the advice was erroneous), and (4) had counsel not erroneously advised the defendant, the defendant would have exercised his right to a trial. To prevail on such an ineffective assistance claim, a defendant must ultimately prove both deficient performance and that under the totality of the circumstances surrounding the plea, there is a reasonable probability the defendant would have gone to trial instead of entering a plea. Grosvenor v. State, 874 So.2d 1176, 1181-82 (Fla.2004).