Demps v. State
Decision Date | 05 June 2000 |
Docket Number | No. SC00-1118, No. SC00-1179. |
Citation | 761 So.2d 302 |
Parties | Bennie DEMPS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Bennie Demps, Petitioner, v. Jeb Bush, etc., et al., Respondents. |
Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Bill Salmon and George F. Schaefer, Gainesville, Florida, for Appellant/Petitioner.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Curtis M. French, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, for Appellee/Respondents.
Bennie Demps, under his fourth warrant of death, appeals an order of the trial court denying his fourth motion for postconviction relief pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 and also seeks mandamus relief. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm the denial of the rule 3.850 motion, and we deny the petition for writ of mandamus.
The present crime involves the stabbing death of an inmate "snitch." When the murder took place, Bennie Demps already was serving two consecutive life sentences and a twenty-year sentence for two other first-degree murders and an attempted murder (he had locked three people in the trunk of a car and shot repeatedly into the trunk). His death sentences for those murders had been reduced to life pursuant to Furman.1 The facts of the present crime are set forth in this Court's opinion on direct appeal:
Demps v. State, 395 So.2d 501, 503-04 (Fla.1981). Demps was convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the crime and was sentenced to death based inter alia on the fact that he had committed two prior first-degree murders.2 We affirmed. See id. at 506. The subsequent procedural history is set forth in this Court's opinion addressing Demps' third rule 3.850 motion:
After the governor signed a death warrant, Demps filed a rule 3.850 motion for postconviction relief, which the trial court denied without an evidentiary hearing. This Court remanded for an evidentiary hearing. Demps v. State, 416 So.2d [808] (Fla.1982). The trial court held a hearing and again denied relief. We affirmed. Demps v. State, 462 So.2d 1074 (Fla.1984). Pursuant to a second death warrant, Demps petitioned this Court for a writ of habeas corpus, which we denied. Demps v. Dugger, 514 So.2d 1092 (Fla.1987). We also affirmed the trial court's summary denial of Demps' second motion for rule 3.850 relief. Demps v. State, 515 So.2d 196 (Fla.1987). When Governor Martinez signed a third death warrant in April 1990, Demps filed the current petition for writ of habeas corpus in this Court. This Court granted a stay of execution and Demps filed his third rule 3.850 motion in the trial court, which the court summarily denied. Demps now appeals that denial of 3.850 relief and seeks relief under his pending habeas petition.
Demps v. Dugger, 714 So.2d 365, 366-67 (Fla.1998) (footnotes omitted). We affirmed the denial of his third rule 3.850 motion and denied his second habeas petition. See id. at 368.3
Demps on July 2, 1999, filed his fourth (i.e., the present) rule 3.850 motion in circuit court, raising a single main issue. He claimed that he recently (on July 3-5, 19984) discovered a memorandum dated September 7, 1976, written by Chief Prison Inspector and Investigator Cecil Sewell and addressed to Louie Wainwright, then Secretary of the Department of Corrections. The memorandum reads in full:
Demps claimed that this memo proves he is innocent. The trial court on May 12, 2000, held a hearing to determine if an evidentiary hearing was warranted on this claim and gave the parties until May 18 to supplement the record. The trial court then denied Demps' fourth rule 3.850 motion. Demps appeals, raising several issues.5 He also has filed in this Court a petition for a writ of mandamus, raising a single issue.6
The trial court below concluded as follows in its order denying the present rule 3.850 motion:
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Appellate standards of review.
...Burns v. Barfield, 732 So. 2d 1202 (Fla. 4th D.C.A. 1999). (7) See Conner v. State, 803 So. 2d 598 (Fla. 2001). (8) See Demps v. State, 761 So. 2d 302 (Fla. 2000). (9) See Burkey v. State, 922 So. 2d 1033 (Fla. 4th D.C.A. 2006). (10) See, e.g., General Motors Corp. v. Porritt, 891 So. 2d 10......