Opinion ID: 1090109
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: State's Subpoena of Eric Cohen

Text: Franqui claims it was improper for the State to invoke the use of an investigatory subpoena to compel defense counsel to appear for questioning in the prosecutor's office prior to the postconviction evidentiary hearing. Section 27.04, Florida Statutes (2006), provides as follows: The state attorney shall have summoned all witnesses required on behalf of the state; and he or she is allowed the process of his or her court to summon witnesses from throughout the state to appear before the state attorney in or out of term time at such convenient places in the state attorney's judicial circuit and at such convenient times as may be designated in the summons, to testify before him or her as to any violation of the law upon which they may be interrogated, and he or she is empowered to administer oaths to all witnesses summoned to testify by the process of his or her court or who may voluntarily appear before the state attorney to testify as to any violation or violations of the law. While we may agree with Franqui that this statute, giving prosecutors the powers necessary to investigate crimes, should not be used as a discovery tool to compel defense counsel to testify ex parte in postconviction proceedings, we find no error in the trial judge's treatment of the issue as asserted in this case. We conclude that the record conclusively demonstrates that no harm resulted from the State's pretrial questioning of defense counsel or the failure of the State to notify postconviction counsel of this questioning. In other words, while it may appear that the State abused its authority under the statute, Franqui has not demonstrated that the State was provided information that it was not otherwise entitled to in defending Franqui's assertions of ineffectiveness of counsel.