Jimenez v. State

• Citation: 265 So.3d 462
• Decision Date: 04 October 2018
• Docket Number: No. SC18-1321,No. SC18-1247,SC18-1247,SC18-1321
• Parties: Jose Antonio JIMENEZ, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Jose Antonio Jimenez, Appellant, v. State of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Florida

265 So.3d 462

Jose Antonio JIMENEZ, Appellant,

v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Jose Antonio Jimenez, Appellant,

v.State of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC18-1247

No. SC18-1321

Supreme Court of Florida.

October 4, 2018

Martin J. McClain and Linda McDermott of McClain & McDermott, P.A., Wilton Manors, Florida, for Appellant

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, Lisa-Marie Lerner, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, Florida, and Melissa Roca Shaw, Assistant Attorney General, Miami, Florida, for Appellee

PER CURIAM.

Jose Antonio Jimenez, a prisoner under sentence of death and an active death warrant, has filed two appeals in this Court since Governor Scott signed his death warrant on July 18, 2018. Collectively, Jimenez appeals the postconviction court's orders summarily denying his fifth and sixth successive motions for postconviction relief filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851, the postconviction court's order denying his motion to amend his sixth successive postconviction motion, and the postconviction court's order denying his motion to correct illegal sentence filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(a). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons below, we affirm the denials of all four motions and lift the stay of execution entered on August 10, 2018.

BACKGROUND

On October 2, 1992, Jimenez beat and stabbed to death 63-year-old Phyllis Minas in her home in Dade County, Florida. Jimenez v. State , 703 So.2d 437, 438 (Fla. 1997), cert. denied , 523 U.S. 1123, 118 S.Ct. 1806, 140 L.Ed.2d 945 (1998). Jimenez's jury found him guilty of burglary with an assault and battery in an occupied dwelling and first-degree murder, and he was subsequently sentenced to death for the murder consistent with his penalty phase jury's unanimous recommendation. Id. We previously described the facts of the incident as follows:

During the attack [Minas's] neighbors heard her cry, "Oh God! Oh my God!" and tried to enter her apartment through the unlocked front door. Jimenez slammed the door shut, locked the locks on the door, and fled the apartment by exiting onto the bedroom balcony, crossing over to a neighbor's balcony and then dropping to the ground. Rescue workers arrived several minutes after Jimenez inflicted the wounds, and Minas was still alive. After changing his clothes and cleaning himself up, Jimenez spoke to neighbors in the hallway and asked one of them if he could use her telephone to call a cab.

Jimenez's fingerprint matched the one lifted from the interior surface of the front door to Minas's apartment, and the police arrested him three days later at his parents' home in Miami Beach.

Id. We upheld Jimenez's convictions and sentence of death on direct appeal, and they became final in 1998 when the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. Id. at 442 ; Jimenez v. Florida , 523 U.S. 1123, 118 S.Ct. 1806, 140 L.Ed.2d 945 (1998).

Since then, Jimenez has engaged in extensive litigation in both state and federal court, none of which has resulted in relief from his convictions or sentence of death. As relevant to the claims raised in these proceedings, in 2001, we upheld the denial of Jimenez's initial postconviction motion.

Jimenez v. State , 810 So.2d 511, 513 (Fla. 2001). Thereafter, we affirmed the denial of Jimenez's first successive postconviction motion, which Jimenez filed in April 2005. Jimenez v. State , 997 So.2d 1056 (Fla. 2008). Additionally, Jimenez sought relief in federal court pursuant to a petition for writ of habeas corpus, the district court denied relief, and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied Jimenez's request for a certificate of appealability. Jimenez v. Fla. Dep't of Corr. , 481 F.3d 1337, 1340-41 (11th Cir.), cert. denied , 552 U.S. 1029, 128 S.Ct. 628, 169 L.Ed.2d 405 (2007).

Governor Scott signed Jimenez's death warrant on July 18, 2018.¹ Thereafter, Jimenez filed several requests for public records to numerous agencies, including a request for additional public records pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.852(h)(3) to the City of North Miami Police Department (NMPD), which was the agency that investigated the victim's murder and, three days later, arrested Jimenez. Collateral counsel had not "previously requested public records" from NMPD (or any other agency), which is a prerequisite for a request for additional records pursuant to rule 3.852(h)(3). See Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.852(h)(3) ; see also Hannon v. State , 228 So.3d 505, 511 (Fla.), cert. denied , ––– U.S. ––––, 138 S.Ct. 441, 199 L.Ed.2d 326 (2017). NMPD had, however, more than 18 years before Jimenez's post-warrant records request, submitted records to the repository pursuant to the provisions of rule 3.852(h) that apply to cases like Jimenez's, in which the mandate affirming the conviction and sentence of death was issued prior to rule 3.852's effective date of October 1, 1998. See Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.852(h)(1). Although NMPD objected to and the postconviction court ultimately denied Jimenez's public records request to NMPD, NMPD sent its entire, unredacted file to the repository as a courtesy before the postconviction court entered its denial order so that there could be a comparison between it and NMPD's prior submission. The repository received NMPD's submission on July 25, 2018, and on July 30, 2018, Jimenez obtained an order from the postconviction court allowing him to access those records, even though they had not been redacted, subject to a prohibition against releasing any confidential or exempt records without permission from the postconviction court. The records repository began emailing Jimenez's counsel the records that same day and also sent Jimenez's counsel a CD containing the records (over 1,000 pages), which was received the next day, July 31, 2018.

During the same time period that Jimenez was reviewing NMPD's post-warrant records submission, he was also litigating in the postconviction court his fifth successive postconviction motion and a motion to correct illegal sentence, both of which Jimenez filed after the Governor signed his death warrant. After holding a Huff² hearing, the postconviction court summarily denied Jimenez's fifth successive postconviction motion and denied his motion to correct illegal sentence on July 31, 2018. Jimenez appealed the denials to this Court on August 1, 2018.

On the same day, August 1, 2018, during their review of NMPD's post-warrant records submission, Jimenez's counsel and his investigator saw handwritten documents that they did not recognize. The investigator then traveled to the repository to compare the 2018 submission against NMPD's prior submission, and Jimenez's counsel ultimately confirmed that 81 pages of handwritten records had not previously been disclosed. Jimenez's counsel further confirmed that there was no indication in NMPD's prior submission that records had been withheld or public records exemptions claimed.

On August 6, 2018, without first seeking leave from this Court's post-warrant scheduling order—which required all proceedings in the postconviction court to be completed by July 31, 2018—Jimenez filed in the postconviction court his sixth successive postconviction motion raising one claim with several subclaims in which he argued that NMPD's post-warrant records submission includes newly discovered evidence that demonstrates Brady ,³ Giglio ,⁴ due process, and discovery violations that singularly and cumulatively entitle him to relief from his convictions and death sentence or, at minimum, an evidentiary hearing. After the postconviction court held a Huff hearing, Jimenez sought to amend his sixth successive postconviction motion to add a new subclaim as well as additional allegations regarding other of his subclaims. On August 9, 2018, the postconviction court denied Jimenez's motion to amend and summarily denied his sixth successive postconviction motion, stating in both denial orders that it would not entertain rehearing.

On August 10, 2018, Jimenez appealed to this Court the summary denial of his sixth successive postconviction motion and the denial of his motion to amend. Thereafter, we stayed Jimenez's execution and amended nunc pro tunc the July 31, 2018, deadline for completing proceedings before the postconviction court to the date that they had actually been completed, August 10, 2018. In so doing, we prohibited additional filings in the postconviction court by either party without prior leave of this Court.

Presently pending before this Court are (1) Jimenez's first post-warrant appeal, in which Jimenez challenges the summary denial of his fifth successive postconviction motion and the denial of his motion to correct illegal sentence; and (2) Jimenez's second post-warrant appeal, in which Jimenez challenges the summary denial of his sixth successive postconviction motion and the denial of his motion to amend. We address them in turn.

ANALYSIS

I. First Post-Warrant Appeal

A. Fifth Successive Postconviction Motion

In appealing the summary denial of his fifth successive postconviction motion, Jimenez raises four claims: (1) that he was denied access to public records necessary and relevant to framing and prosecuting his postconviction claims; (2) that he is entitled to an evidentiary hearing on his claim that Florida's use of etomidate as the first of three drugs in its lethal injection procedure places him at substantial risk of serious harm in violation of the Eighth Amendment and article I, section 17 of the Florida Constitution ; (3) that Florida's continued use of a three-drug protocol instead of a one-drug protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in light of evolving standards of decency; and (4) that executing him after he has spent more than 23 years on death row constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in light of evolving standards of decency. None of these claims warrants relief.

(1) Public Records

Jimenez first challenges the postconviction court's...