Opinion ID: 1090109
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Record of Confessions

Text: Franqui raised a claim in his original 3.851 motion to the court below, alleging that the circumstances surrounding his confession, including the officers' election not to make an audio or visual recording of any portion of the interrogation, make the defendant's statement unreliable, illegal and inadmissible. However, the trial court denied relief, finding the claim to be procedurally barred while also noting that that there is no constitutional or other legal requirement that police agencies record or preserve an oral confession. In his habeas petition, Franqui now argues that appellate counsel was ineffective for not raising the same claim on direct appeal. The record reflects that while Franqui did move to suppress his confession, he did not argue that it should be suppressed because it was not recorded. As the State correctly notes, in order to preserve an issue regarding suppression, Franqui must have raised to the trial court the same argument he raises on appeal. See Perez, 919 So.2d at 349. We agree that since the issue was not preserved, appellate counsel cannot be deemed ineffective for failing to raise it. See Groover, 656 So.2d at 425.
Franqui argues that appellate counsel was ineffective when he failed to raise on direct appeal the trial court's decision to prevent defense counsel Cohen from calling Assistant State Attorney Kevin DiGregory as a witness. Without providing any legal basis for a claim of error or details regarding the failed attempt to call DiGregory as a witness in the guilt-phase trial, Franqui argues that DiGregory should have been asked a number of questions that Franqui now posits for the first time in this proceeding. Given the lack of specificity and legal basis regarding this claim, as well as the hypothetical nature of the questions posed, we find this claim to be insufficiently pled and deny relief. See Patton, 878 So.2d at 380.
Franqui claims that appellate counsel failed to sufficiently challenge the resentencing court's rejection of the fact that Franqui did not fire the fatal bullet as nonstatutory mitigation. This claim, however, is refuted by the record, which reflects that appellate counsel did raise this argument in Franqui's direct appeal after resentencing, and the argument was expressly rejected by this Court. See Franqui II, 804 So.2d at 1197 (Under the particular facts in this case, we find that the trial court did not err in considering, but ultimately rejecting, the fact that Franqui did not fire the fatal bullet as a mitigating circumstance.).