Bryant v. State

• Decision Date: 28 April 2005
• Docket Number: No. SC04-83., No. SC03-1618
• Citation: 901 So.2d 810
• Parties: Byron BRYANT, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Byron Bryant, Petitioner, v. James V. Crosby, Jr., Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

901 So.2d 810

Byron BRYANT, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Byron Bryant, Petitioner, v. James V. Crosby, Jr., Respondent.

Nos. SC03-1618, SC04-83.

Supreme Court of Florida.

April 28, 2005.

Jo Ann Barone Kotzen, West Palm Beach, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, and Leslie T. Campbell, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.

PER CURIAM.

Byron Bryant appeals an order of the circuit court determining that it lacked jurisdiction to hear Bryant's claim and, in the alternative, denying his motion for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851. He also petitions the Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons expressed below, we hold that the circuit court did have jurisdiction to hear Bryant's claims because it should not have stricken his original motion, but should have instead granted leave to amend within a reasonable time. Nevertheless, we affirm the lower court's alternative denial of the motion on the merits. We also deny Bryant's petition for habeas corpus.

I. FACTS

The facts of this case are set out in Bryant's direct appeal.¹ We briefly restate them here. Byron Bryant and an accomplice entered Andre's Market in Delray Beach, Florida. The accomplice stayed at the front of the store near the register, while Bryant walked to the back of the store where he encountered Leonard Andre. Bryant asked Andre if he could use the Market's bathroom. As Andre turned to show Bryant the location of the facilities, Bryant pulled a .357 magnum revolver on Andre, while the accomplice drew his gun on Andre's wife. Upon seeing Bryant draw his weapon, Andre lunged at him and the two men began to struggle. Bryant eventually regained control of the gun and shot Andre three times, fatally wounding him. The two perpetrators then ran from the scene, dropping a ski mask in their haste. After fleeing the scene, Bryant told his girlfriend what had occurred and asked her to dispose of the gun. Investigation of the crime scene produced few leads. Bryant became a suspect only after several of his acquaintances contacted investigators about his involvement. Police eventually arrested him, and he gave police a recorded statement confessing to the robbery and murder. At trial, Bryant denied any involvement in the crimes and claimed that the confession was the result of police coercion. Bryant v. State, 785 So.2d 422, 426 (Fla.2001).

Bryant was convicted of murder and armed robbery and sentenced to death in 1993. This Court reversed Bryant's conviction because the trial judge was absent during a recitation of testimony without a valid waiver. Bryant v. State, 656 So.2d 426, 429 (Fla.1995). Bryant was retried and again found guilty by a jury. Bryant waived his penalty phase jury. He was sentenced to death by Judge Mounts, the same judge who presided at Bryant's first trial. The trial court found the following three aggravating factors: (1) Bryant previously had been convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person, (2) the capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of or in an attempt to commit the crime of robbery, and (3) the crime was committed for the purpose of avoiding a lawful arrest or effecting an escape from custody. Bryant, 785 So.2d at 436-37. The court did not find any statutory mitigating factors but did find the single nonstatutory mitigator of remorse. Id. On direct appeal, Bryant raised seven issues.² We affirmed the conviction on all issues.

Bryant's conviction became final when the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. Bryant v. Florida, 534 U.S. 1025, 122 S.Ct. 557, 151 L.Ed.2d 432 (2001). After this Court granted a thirty-day extension to the one-year time limit for filing postconviction motions, Bryant filed his initial postconviction motion on November 20, 2002. The circuit court struck the motion because it did not satisfy the pleading requirements of rule 3.851. The circuit court then allowed Bryant to file an "amended" motion, which he did in March 2003. In August, however, the circuit court determined that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to hear Bryant's claims. Id. The court reasoned that the "amended" motion was really a new motion because the original motion had been stricken. Therefore, the court reasoned, the new motion was untimely filed. In the alternative, the circuit court made summary findings on the merits of the motion without holding an evidentiary hearing.

II. 3.851 APPEAL

Bryant's appeal concerns the circuit court's August 2003 order. He challenges the court's ruling that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction. He also challenges the court's alternative, summary findings as to several claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Finally, he claims his death sentence is unconstitutional under Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), and Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). We address each of these arguments in turn.

A. Subject Matter Jurisdiction

The judgment and sentence on Bryant's second trial became final when the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on November 13, 2001. Bryant, 534 U.S. 1025, 122 S.Ct. 557, 151 L.Ed.2d 432; see Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.851(d)(1)(B) (a judgment becomes final "on the disposition of the petition for writ of certiorari by the United States Supreme Court"). A postconviction motion must be filed within one year after the judgment of conviction and sentence of death becomes final, unless this Court grants an extension under rule 3.851(d)(5). Only we have the power to grant an extension. Id. We exercised that power on November 13, 2002, and granted Bryant a 30-day extension, to December 13.³ Bryant timely filed his initial postconviction motion on November 20. The State moved to strike the motion, arguing that Bryant failed (1) to attach a copy of the judgment and sentence; (2) to plead his claims separately, detailing the facts; and (3) to justify raising issues in a collateral pleading which either were or could have been raised on direct appeal. The trial court struck Bryant's motion, ruling that it failed to meet the pleading requirements of rule 3.851(e)(1). The brief order merely states: "[A]nd having considered the written pleadings and oral argument of counsel it is hereby ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the State's Motion to Strike Defendant's Initial Postconviction Motion is GRANTED." The record indicates that the State drafted this order.

Instead of seeking a further time extension from this Court, on January 16, 2003, Bryant moved the trial court for leave to amend the stricken motion.⁴ The trial court granted the motion. At the hearing, the court cited concerns over further delays in the case and the likelihood that this Court would grant an extension in any event. Bryant filed his "amended" postconviction motion on March 4. On August 8, however, Judge Brown ruled that the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to entertain Bryant's claims because the motion was not filed within the time allotted by rule 3.851(d).

We review discretionary acts by trial judges under an abuse of discretion standard: "If reasonable men could differ as to the propriety of the action taken by the trial court, then the action is not unreasonable and there can be no finding of an abuse of discretion." Canakaris v. Canakaris, 382 So.2d 1197, 1203 (1980); see Paranzino v. Barnett Bank of S. Fla., 690 So.2d 725, 729 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997) (citing Canakaris). A trial judge's decision to strike a motion is entitled to significant deference. Nevertheless, we conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in striking the initial motion without granting leave to amend.

In a civil context, striking pleadings and dismissing with prejudice are considered severe sanctions that require a strong justification. In Mercer v. Raine, 443 So.2d 944, 946 (Fla.1983), this Court held:

We agree that the striking of pleadings... is the most severe of all sanctions which should be employed only in extreme circumstances. A deliberate and contumacious disregard of the court's authority will justify application of this severest of sanctions, as will bad faith, willful disregard or gross indifference to an order of the court, or conduct which evinces deliberate callousness.

(Citations omitted.)

We understand that postconviction motions differ from civil complaints in significant respects. Postconviction motions cannot be "dismissed" as complaints can. Nevertheless, the same principles apply. Although a trial court may "strike" a postconviction motion where a civil complaint would be "dismissed," the trial court, like the court in the civil context, should grant leave to amend the motion to cure the defects that led the court to strike the original motion. In the civil context, dismissing a complaint without granting at least one opportunity to amend is considered an abuse of discretion unless the complaint is not amendable. See Sonny Boy, L.L.C. v. Asnani, 879 So.2d 25, 28-29 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004) (holding that refusal to allow amendment of a complaint is an abuse of discretion unless "it clearly appears that allowing the amendment would prejudice the opposing party; the privilege to amend has been abused; or amendment would be futile"); Thompson v. Jared Kane Co., 872 So.2d 356, 360 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004) (same); Cason v. Fla. Parole Comm'n, 819 So.2d 1012, 1013 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002) (same); Hayward & Assocs., Inc. v. Hoffman, 793 So.2d 89, 90 n. 3 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001) (stating that because the complaint in question was the first submitted by the plaintiff, "to enter a final order dismissing th[e] complaint with prejudice and without opportunity to amend would have been an abuse of discretion"); Nev. Interstate Props. Corp. v. City of West Palm Beach, ...