Opinion ID: 2680099
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: State Direct and Post-Conviction Review

Text: On February 14, 2002, Insignares filed a post-conviction motion to correct his sentence under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800. The state judge resentenced Insignares by reducing his 40-year imprisonment sentence for attempted murder to 27 years and replacing his 1-year imprisonment sentence for discharging a firearm with a 5-year suspended imprisonment sentence. These sentences remained concurrent. On direct appeal, the state appellate court reversed Insignares’s criminalmischief conviction but otherwise affirmed. Insignares v. State, 847 So. 2d 1063, 1064 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2003) (per curiam). The appellate court’s mandate issued on July 14, 2003. On August 18, 2003, the state judge vacated the criminal- mischief conviction. 4 Case: 12-12378 Date Filed: 06/23/2014 Page: 5 of 24 On May 25, 2004, Insignares filed a collateral challenge to his conviction under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 and alleged ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Relevant to this appeal, Insignares alleged his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to (1) depose Correa, (2) colloquy a sleeping juror, and (3) object or move for a mistrial after improper statements by the prosecutor during his closing argument. He additionally alleged cumulative error. On post-conviction review, the state judge held an evidentiary hearing and denied the motion. The appellate court affirmed. Insignares v. State, 957 So. 2d 680 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2007). The appellate court’s mandate issued on May 18, 2007. C. First Federal Habeas Petition and Additional State Review On December 12, 2007, Insignares filed his first federal habeas petition under § 2254 in the Southern District of Florida. Notably, he alleged the same errors in his 2007 petition as he has in his second federal habeas petition, the subject of this appeal. The district judge dismissed his petition as untimely. Without seeking a Certificate of Appealability (“COA”), Insignares appealed the dismissal. We dismissed that appeal for failure to prosecute. Insignares v. Fla. Dep’t of Corr., No. 08-15529 (11th Cir. Oct. 22, 2008). On April 1, 2009, Insignares filed a second Florida Rule 3.800 motion to correct his sentence. The state judge granted the motion and reduced the mandatory-minimum imprisonment sentence for his attempted-murder conviction 5 Case: 12-12378 Date Filed: 06/23/2014 Page: 6 of 24 from 20 years to 10 years, but he otherwise left his conviction and sentence intact. The judge entered the corrected sentence and new judgment on May 22, 2009. On June 15, 2009, Insignares filed a second Florida Rule 3.850 motion challenging his conviction and alleged actual innocence. The state judge denied the petition; the appellate court affirmed without opinion. Insignares v. State, 50 So. 3d 1146 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2010) (per curiam). The mandate issued on January 24, 2011. D. Second Federal Habeas Petition On March 10, 2011, Insignares filed the § 2254 habeas petition at issue in this appeal. The petition was referred to a magistrate judge, who construed the petition as raising ten claims, which he rejected in a Report and Recommendation (“R&R”). The magistrate judge concluded the habeas petition was not “second or successive” under Magwood v. Patterson, 561 U.S. 320, 130 S. Ct. 2788 (2010), because it was Insignares’s first petition to challenge the new judgment entered after resentencing. R&R at 27. The district judge adopted the R&R and issued a COA as to whether (1) counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate, depose, and adequately impeach Luis Correa; (2) counsel was ineffective for failing to colloquy and remove a sleeping juror pursuant to Insignares’s request; (3) counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the prosecutor’s misrepresentation of facts crucial to the issue of identification and move for mistrial after the prosecutor 6 Case: 12-12378 Date Filed: 06/23/2014 Page: 7 of 24 commented on his opinion of the evidence; and (4) cumulative error deprived Insignares of a fair trial.