Opinion ID: 1636065
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: erroneous advice about sentencing consequences

Text: We were first presented with the question certified in this case in Bates v. State, 887 So.2d 1214, 1215 (Fla.2004). The question was whether an attorney's erroneous advice that a plea to one crime would not affect the sentence for a future crime constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel. Although ultimately the Court decided the case on other grounds and did not answer the question, several concurring opinions addressed it. Then, in Dickey, a majority of the Court held that such conduct did not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel. Dickey, 928 So.2d at 1194. Petitioner's claim, however, is substantively different from the one we decided in Dickey. At least as alleged by Petitioner, the sentence in Case # 2 was not for a crime that occurred after the plea in Case # 1, but for one that occurred before it, and of which he informed his counsel. Thus, the question here is whether counsel's erroneous advice that a plea in one case could not be used to enhance a sentence for a crime already committed, and about which counsel was informed, constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel. To resolve that issue, we first review Dickey. We then explain the differences between the claims raised in that case and those raised here. Finally, we establish the pleading requirements for such a claim.
Like most cases alleging ineffective assistance of counsel, Dickey analyzed the claim using the now-familiar two-pronged test the United States Supreme Court established in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Under that test, the defendant must first specify an act or omission of counsel so serious that counsel was not functioning as the `counsel' guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. Id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Second, the defendant must establish prejudice by show[ing] that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. With regard to guilty and nolo contendere pleas, prejudice is satisfied by demonstrating a reasonable probability that but for counsel's errors, he would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial. Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 59, 106 S.Ct. 366, 88 L.Ed.2d 203 (1985). Even before Dickey, we had applied Strickland to claims of advice about the effects of a guilty plea on a sentence for a future crime. In Major v. State, 814 So.2d 424, 425 (Fla.2002), we considered whether the trial court or counsel have a duty to advise a defendant that [the defendant's] plea in a pending case may have sentence enhancing consequences if the defendant commits a new crime in the future. We held there was no such duty. Id. at 431. Because the case involved only the failure to advise that a plea to a crime could enhance a future sentence, however, we did not decide whether counsel's erroneous advice that a plea definitely would not enhance a future sentence would constitute ineffective assistance. We answered that question in Dickey. In that case, the defendant alleged that before entering his plea, his counsel advised him that if Dickey committed another crime, his plea could not be used to enhance a sentence for the later crime. Dickey claimed counsel was ineffective because his conviction was used precisely that way, and had he known of this potential effect he would not have pleaded guilty to the earlier crime. Dickey, 928 So.2d at 1197. Rather than a failure to advise, Dickey involved erroneous adviceor, as some courts have referred to it, affirmative or positive misadvice. We recognized the concurring opinions in Bates, and stated that [t]hese differing opinions are encompassed in our decision. Dickey, 928 So.2d at 1198; see Bates, 887 So.2d at 1220 (Wells, J., concurring specially, with Lewis, J., concurring); id. at 1221 (Cantero, J., specially concurring). We held as follows: We conclude that allegations of affirmative misadvice by trial counsel on the sentence-enhancing consequences of a defendant's plea for future criminal behavior in an otherwise facially sufficient motion are not cognizable as an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. A majority of this Court concludes that claims that a defendant entered a plea based on wrong advice about a potential sentence enhancement for a future crime fail to meet the Strickland test, either because such claims do not demonstrate deficient performance in the case at issue or because, as a matter of law, any deficient performance could not have prejudiced the defendant in that case. Therefore, we hold that wrong advice about the consequences for a crime not yet committed cannot constitute ineffective assistance of counsel. Dickey, 928 So.2d at 1198 (some emphasis added). Just as Dickey considered a question left open in Major, here we consider a question left open in Dickey: whether the erroneous advice that a guilty plea will not enhance the sentence for another crime constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel when the defendant specifically tells counsel before the plea that he has committed another crime.
Relying on our decisions in State v. Sallato, 519 So.2d 605, 606 (Fla.1988), and State v. Leroux, 689 So.2d 235, 235 (Fla. 1996), Petitioner argues that erroneous advice about the consequences of a plea on the sentence for another crime that already has been committed is no longer hypothetical and constitutes ineffective assistance. In Sallato, we distinguished a failure to advise claim from a positive misadvice claim. Then, in Leroux, we noted that courts recognized that a defendant may be entitled to withdraw a plea entered in reliance upon his attorney's mistaken advice about sentencing, and stated that such cases recognize the proposition that a defendant invariably relies upon the expert advice of counsel concerning sentencing in agreeing to plead guilty. Leroux, 689 So.2d at 237. Thus, in these two cases, we acknowledged that claims of positive misadvice given on collateral matters on which counsel had no duty to advise a defendant constituted legally cognizable ineffective assistance claims pertaining to the voluntariness of a plea. See Dickey, 928 So.2d at 1200 (Cantero, J., concurring) (citing Leroux and noting that in certain cases involving particular collateral consequences, when counsel have chosen to give such advice [on collateral consequences], courts have recognized claims of ineffective assistance when it was erroneous). Although the issue has not always been framed in terms of ineffective assistance of counsel, other courts, as well, have found erroneous advice about collateral consequences of a plea to justify the plea's withdrawal. See, e.g., Ghanavati v. State, 820 So.2d 989, 991 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002) (When a defendant enters a plea in reliance on affirmative misadvice and demonstrates that he or she was thereby prejudiced, the defendant may be entitled to withdraw the plea even if the misadvice concerns a collateral consequence as to which the trial court was under no obligation to advise him or her.); Joyner v. State, 795 So.2d 267, 268 (Fla. 1st DCA 2001) (remanding for evidentiary hearing where defendant's postconviction motion alleged misadvice regarding loss of the right to vote). We rejected the claim in Dickey because wrong advice about the consequences for a crime not yet committed cannot constitute ineffective assistance of counsel. Dickey, 928 So.2d at 1198 (emphasis added). In this case, however, the later sentence was for a crime committed before entry of the plea used to enhance it. Stated another way, in Dickey the later case was entirely hypothetical; at the time he entered his plea, the defendant had not committed another crime. In this case, he hadand he told his counsel about it. Therefore, counsel advised Petitioner about more than a hypothetical consequence. First, unlike affirmative misadvice on a future crime, the enhancement of the sentence imposed for a previously committed crime does not result from the defendant's later decision to commit another crime. See Bates, 887 So.2d at 1223 (Cantero, J., specially concurring) (Bates never would have been sentenced as a habitual offender had he not decided to commit another felony [after he entered his plea]. His counsel's advice, wrong though it was, would not have affected him at all.). Second, although the charge and successful prosecution of another offense may transpire in the future after the plea is entered, the fact remains that the other offense already has been committed and the potential for sentence enhancement is real. A defendant would have a concrete and immediate interest in the effect of his plea in one case on another. Accordingly, we hold that a claim that counsel erroneously advised a defendant about the effect of his plea on the subsequent sentence imposed in another case for a crime committed before the plea was entered is a cognizable claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.
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).