Opinion ID: 1920952
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Denial of Motion to Continue Sentencing

Text: In his first habeas claim, Doorbal alleges that his appellate counsel was ineffective because counsel failed to challenge on direct appeal the denial by the trial court of a motion to continue sentencing. Doorbal contends that when Schiller was taken into federal custody immediately after testifying during the Spencer hearing, the trial court erroneously denied a continuance that would have afforded Doorbal the opportunity to conduct discovery with regard to whether a Brady violation had occurred. We reject this claim. During his direct appeal, codefendant Daniel Lugo alleged that a Brady violation occurred due to the failure of the State to disclose its knowledge of the federal investigation of Marc Schiller for Medicare fraud. See Lugo, 845 So.2d at 104. The trial court denied a request by Lugo for either a new trial or a new round of discovery. See id. On direct appeal, we rejected Lugo's allegations of a Brady violation. See id. at 105. Appellate counsel cannot be ineffective for failing to raise a meritless issue on appeal. See Lawrence v. State, 831 So.2d 121, 135 (Fla.2002); see also Kokal v. Dugger, 718 So.2d 138, 142 (Fla.1998) (Appellate counsel cannot be faulted for failing to raise a nonmeritorious claim.). Since the claim that the defendants should have been allowed to conduct further discovery with regard to the alleged failure of the State to disclose the federal investigation against Schiller was previously considered and rejected by this Court in the direct appeal of Lugo, counsel for Doorbal was not ineffective for failing to raise this claim on direct appeal. Accordingly, we deny this claim.