Dixon v. State

Decision Date04 February 1999
Docket NumberNo. 91,370,91,370
Citation730 So.2d 265
PartiesGregory R. DIXON, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
CourtFlorida Supreme Court

Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender and Bruce A. Rosenthal, Assistant Public Defender, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Miami, Florida, for Petitioner

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General and Roberta G. Mandel, Assistant Attorney General, Miami, Florida, for Respondent

PARIENTE, J.

We have for review a decision addressing the following question certified to be of great public importance:

WHETHER APPELLANT'S RULE 3.850 MOTION SEEKING RETROACTIVE BENEFIT OF HALE V. STATE, 630 So.2d 521 (Fla.1993), SHOULD BE DEEMED TIMELY FILED WHERE: (1) APPELLANT SOUGHT HALE RELIEF PRIOR TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF [STATE V.] CALLAWAY [658 So.2d 983 (Fla.1995)], AND RELIEF WAS DENIED; AND (2) APPELLANT FILED ANOTHER MOTION FOR POSTCONVICTION RELIEF, BASED ON HALE, WITHIN TWO YEARS AFTER CALLAWAY WAS ANNOUNCED.

Dixon v. State, 697 So.2d 966, 967 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997). We have jurisdiction, see art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const., and we rephrase the certified question as follows:

WHETHER A DEFENDANT'S RULE 3.850 MOTION SEEKING THE RETROACTIVE APPLICATION OF HALE WAS TIMELY WHEN FILED WITHIN TWO YEARS FROM THE DATE THE MANDATE ISSUED IN THIS COURT'S OPINION IN CALLAWAY, WHICH ANNOUNCED
THE RETROACTIVITY OF HALE.

As rephrased, we answer the question in the affirmative and quash the decision below. We also recede from our opinion in Callaway to the limited extent that it utilized the Hale decision as the basis for calculating the two-year window in which an eligible defendant could seek Hale relief. See Callaway, 658 So.2d at 987

.

On April 23, 1991, Gregory R. Dixon received consecutive habitual felony offender sentences totaling sixty years for convictions allegedly arising from the same criminal episode (thirty years for attempted manslaughter with a firearm and thirty years for aggravated battery with a firearm). On direct appeal in 1992, the Third District affirmed without opinion. See Dixon v. State, 605 So.2d 179 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992)

.

On October 14, 1993, this Court issued its decision in Hale, holding that the habitual offender statute did not authorize the imposition of consecutive habitual felony offender sentences for multiple crimes committed during a single criminal episode. 630 So.2d at 525. Hale did not address the retroactive application of its holding, because that issue was not before the Court. We denied rehearing in Hale on February 9, 1994. Id. at 521.

On August 12, 1994, while a petition for certiorari review was pending in the United States Supreme Court in Hale, Dixon filed a pro se motion seeking postconviction relief from his consecutive habitual offender sentences pursuant to Hale. The trial court summarily denied his motion. The Third District affirmed that denial without written opinion. See Dixon v. State, 652 So.2d 827 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995)

. As the Third District stated in its opinion below, "the most reasonable explanation for that denial is the assumption that Hale would not be retroactive." Dixon, 697 So.2d at 967.

On July 20, 1995, this Court issued its decision in Callaway holding that Hale should be applied retroactively. Callaway, 658 So.2d at 987. In so deciding, this Court held that "a two-year window following this Court's decision in Hale shall be provided for criminal defendants to challenge the imposition of consecutive habitual felony offender sentences for multiple offenses arising out of a single criminal episode." Id.

Thereafter, on August 11, 1996, Dixon filed a second 3.850 motion seeking relief under Hale. See Dixon, 697 So.2d at 967

. The trial court denied relief, and the Third District affirmed, finding that Dixon was

in the position of having raised the Hale issue both too early and too late. His initial Rule 3.850 motion raised the Hale issue, but did so at a time when Hale had not been held [in Callaway ] to be retroactive.

Id.

The problem raised by the Third District stems from our statement in Callaway that defendants would have "a two-year window following this Court's decision in Hale" in which to seek Hale relief. Callaway, 658 So.2d at 987. The appellate courts confronting this issue have construed our language as giving defendants two years to bring a Hale claim calculated either from the date our Hale opinion issued, October 14, 1993,1 or the date we denied rehearing, February 9, 1994.2 Using either date results in a short window due to the length of time that elapsed between our decision in Hale and our decision in Callaway. If the date of our opinion in Hale is used, eligible defendants would have had only an additional three months to bring their claim after we decided the issue of retroactivity in Callaway. Similarly, if the date we denied rehearing in Hale is used, defendants would have had only an additional six months after the issue of retroactivity was decided to bring their claims.

The Third District concluded that "Callaway's calculation of the window may be frustrating the intent, owing to the short window period following the announcement of Callaway." Dixon, 697 So.2d at 967

. We agree. Our intent in Callaway was to provide for the retroactive application of Hale and to allow eligible defendants a reasonable time within which to file for postconviction relief.

Our underlying concerns in Callaway were fundamental fairness and uniformity in sentences between similarly situated prisoners. As expressed by both Judge Altenbernd writing for the Second District in Callaway v. State, 642 So.2d 636, 641 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994), approved, 658 So.2d 983 (Fla.1995), and by Justice Grimes writing for this Court in Callaway, 658 So.2d at 987, the failure to give Hale retroactive application would result in some prisoners serving sentences twice as long as those imposed on similarly situated prisoners.

In Callaway, Justice Grimes concluded that the "decision in Hale significantly impacts a defendant's constitutional liberty interests," and that:

[The] retroactive application of the rule announced in Hale will have no serious adverse effect upon the administration of justice. Courts will not be required to overturn convictions or delve extensively into stale records to apply the rule. The administration of justice would be more detrimentally affected if criminal defendants who had the misfortune to be sentenced during the six year window between the amendment of section 775.084 and the decision in Hale are required to serve sentences two or more times as long as similarly situated defendants who happened to be sentenced after Hale.

658 So.2d at 987 (citation omitted) (emphasis supplied). In Dixon's case, if the Hale relief Dixon seeks is ultimately granted, his overall sentence of sixty years would be halved to thirty years.

Before a decision such as Hale is applied retroactively to convictions and sentences that are already final, the decision must meet the stringent criteria of Witt v. State, 387 So.2d 922, 928-29 (Fla.1980), which is a relatively rare occurrence. See State v. Glenn, 558 So.2d 4, 7 (Fla.1990)

(discussing the rarity of retroactive application and listing opinions we have refused to apply retroactively). In the limited number of decisions that are retroactively applied, we have determined that concerns for basic fairness and uniformity of treatment among similarly situated defendants outweigh any adverse impact that retroactive application of the rule might have on decisional finality. See Callaway, 658 So.2d at 987.

We conclude that these concerns also compel a conclusion that it is appropriate to utilize the date of our decision announcing retroactivity, specifically the date of this Court's mandate,3 as the beginning date for calculating the additional two-year window. An unbending rule providing that claims must be filed within two years after our original opinion announcing a change of law, rather than two years after our opinion announcing retroactive application of the change in law, simply does not comport with the policy reasons underlying our decision to give a prior opinion retroactive application to convictions and sentences that are already final.

Our decision to utilize the date of the issuance of the mandate in the case in which we announce retroactivity as the basis for calculating a cut-off period for postconviction claims is consistent with the intent of Adams v. State, 543 So.2d 1244, 1247 (Fla.1989), that defendants must file rule 3.850 motions within two years of any fundamental change in law. Only when we decide the issue of retroactivity do we announce whether the change of law has "fundamental significance" and accordingly constitutes a "fundamental change of law" entitled to retroactive application.

We also create potential problems for the lower courts and the defendants affected by our decision when we calculate the two-year period under rule 3.850 from the time that we announce the change of law (Hale), rather than from the time that we determine that the change of law should have retroactive application (Callaway). If defendants file their claims pursuant to rule 3.850 before the issue of retroactivity is decided, their claims may be summarily denied, as was the case with Dixon, providing for no further avenue of appellate review.

In this interim period, defendants who are directly affected by the change of law may end up in legal limbo, despite their best efforts to enforce their rights. Many of these defendants are unrepresented, further compounding the difficulty. One aspect of this difficulty includes the disparate treatment of similarly situated defendants by the appellate courts.4

These problems are especially apparent when there is a considerable time lapse between the date this Court (or the United States Supreme Court) announces the change of law, and the date this Court later decides that the decision should be given retroactive application to defendants seeking postconviction...

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