Johnson v. State

• Decision Date: 13 July 2000
• Docket Number: No. SC90743.,SC90743.
• Citation: 769 So.2d 990
• Parties: Paul Beasley JOHNSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

769 So.2d 990

Paul Beasley JOHNSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC90743.

Supreme Court of Florida.

July 13, 2000.

Rehearing Denied October 11, 2000.

Gregory C. Smith, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel—Northern Region, Andrew Thomas, Chief Assistant CCC and Heidi E. Brewer, Assistant CCC—Northern Region, Tallahassee, Florida, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Candance M. Sabella, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, Florida, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Paul Beasley Johnson, a prisoner under sentence of death, appeals the circuit court's denial of his motion for postconviction relief filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm the circuit court's denial.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Johnson was convicted in 1981 of three counts of first-degree murder for the murders of William Evans, Ray Beasley, and Theron Burnham. The facts of this case are set forth in detail in our opinion on Johnson's second direct appeal. See Johnson v. State, 608 So.2d 4 (Fla.1992). Johnson also was convicted of kidnaping, arson, two counts of robbery, and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. The trial court sentenced Johnson to death for each of the three murder convictions, and this Court affirmed the convictions and sentences. Johnson v. State, 438 So.2d 774 (Fla.1983). After a death warrant was signed in January 1986, Johnson petitioned this Court for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming ineffective assistance of appellate counsel for failure to challenge the trial court's allowing the jury to separate after it began deliberating Johnson's guilt or innocence. This Court found reversible error in the court's failure to keep a capital case jury together during deliberations and granted Johnson a new trial. Johnson v. Wainwright, 498 So.2d 938 (Fla.1986). Johnson's retrial, which began in Polk County in October 1987, ended in a mistrial based on juror misconduct. Subsequently, Johnson filed motions to disqualify the trial judge and change venue. These motions were granted, and Johnson was tried in Alachua County in April 1988. Johnson was again convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. This Court affirmed Johnson's convictions and sentences. Johnson, 608 So.2d at 6.

In August 1994, Johnson filed his initial postconviction motion under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. The circuit court dismissed the initial motion without prejudice to file a subsequent postconviction motion, and Johnson appealed the dismissal to this Court.

During the pendency of the appeal, Johnson filed an amended rule 3.850 motion. The amended motion was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction by the circuit court. On August 29, 1995, this Court dismissed the pending notice of appeal and directed the trial court to reinstate the amended rule 3.850 motion and proceed with the hearing. During this period, public records litigation pursuant to chapter 119, Florida Statutes, was ongoing in the case. On July 26, 1996, the circuit court found that Johnson had received all of the public records to which he was entitled and ordered Johnson to file an amended 3.850 motion by September 16, 1996. Judge Bentley, a successor judge, was assigned to the case. Johnson filed his amended 3.850 motion, and while the motion was pending, Judge Bentley ordered that a Huff¹ hearing be held on January 9, 1997, to determine whether any of the claims in the 3.850 motion required an evidentiary hearing and ordered that memoranda on the issue be filed by December 27, 1996.

On December 26, 1996, Johnson filed a motion to hold the Huff proceedings in abeyance. Johnson claimed that records from the Hillsborough County state attorney's office that had not been provided to Johnson had been found at the Attorney General's office. Johnson requested an opportunity to review the records and to amend his 3.850 motion and that the public records issue be reopened.

The circuit court granted Johnson permission to issue a subpoena duces tecum to Karen Cox, the records custodian for the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office and to argue the merits of Johnson's public records claim at the January 9, 1997, hearing. After the hearing, the circuit court granted Johnson an additional twenty days in which to file documents detailing the new matters discovered as a result of the newly discovered public records and a proposed amended 3.850 motion. On January 22, 1997, the circuit court issued a nonfinal order summarily denying a portion of Johnson's rule 3.850 motion that was filed in September 1996 and stating that the remaining claims would be heard at an evidentiary hearing to be held on March 3, 1997.

On January 28, 1997, Johnson filed a list detailing new matters allegedly raised by the newly discovered public records. Johnson also filed unsuccessful motions for leave to conduct depositions and to disqualify Judge Bentley and a proposed amended rule 3.850 motion.²

The circuit court issued an order on February 3, 1997, accepting Johnson's proposed amended rule 3.850 motion. The circuit court found that Johnson had not raised any entirely new claims in the amended rule 3.850 motion and adopted the findings of its January 22, 1997, order regarding the claims that were summarily denied and those that would be the subject of the evidentiary hearing.³ The order also stated that Johnson could use any of the newly discovered evidence in support of the claims that would be the subject of the evidentiary hearing. The circuit court also gave Johnson an additional five days in which to submit a memorandum of any new claims that were discovered as a result of public records discovered at the Attorney General's office. On February 7, 1997, Johnson filed a motion requesting sixty days to review those records. The circuit court denied the motion and ordered that Johnson be prepared to litigate his rule 3.850 motion at the evidentiary hearing scheduled for March 3, 1997.

After the evidentiary hearing, the circuit court issued an order on March 19, 1997, summarily denying thirteen of Johnson's twenty-seven claims. State v. Johnson, No. 81-0112A1 (Fla. 10th Cir. Ct. order filed Mar. 19, 1997). After setting forth analysis and record attachments, the court found the remaining fourteen claims to be without merit.

ISSUES ON APPEAL

In this appeal, Johnson raises eight claims. Johnson argues that: (I) the circuit court erred in denying Johnson an evidentiary hearing or additional discovery concerning his public records request; (II) the circuit court erred in denying Johnson's motion to disqualify Judge Bentley; (III) the circuit court erred in denying Johnson's claim that the State withheld material exculpatory evidence rendering counsel ineffective at the guilt phase; (IV) the circuit court erred in denying Johnson's claim that counsel was ineffective at the penalty phase of Johnson's trial; (V) the circuit court erred in denying Johnson's claim that his constitutional rights were violated by counsel's failure to obtain an adequate mental health evaluation and failure to provide necessary background information to the mental health consultants; (VI) the circuit court erred in summarily denying Johnson's claims; (VII) the circuit court erred in ruling that venue was appropriate in Polk County for hearing Johnson's rule 3.850 motion; and (VIII) the circuit court erred in refusing to consider Johnson's cumulative error claim.

Claim I. Public Records

Johnson argues that the circuit court erred in declining to provide him additional time to review the state attorney records that were discovered in the Attorney General's office. Johnson also argues that public records are missing and that the circuit court erred in refusing to conduct an evidentiary hearing concerning the matter.

As to Johnson's first claim, as illustrated in the procedural history set forth above, Johnson had sufficient time to review the records discovered in the Attorney General's office. In its order the circuit court stated:

On July 22, 1996, Judge Robert L. Doyel found that the defendant's attorneys, members of the Office of the Capital Collateral Representative (hereinafter "CCR") had "received all of the public records to which it is entitled" and ordered CCR to file the amended rule 3.850 motion by September 16, 1996....

On December 26, 1996, CCR filed a motion to hold proceedings in abeyance because "[a]n inspection of the Attorney General's records has revealed that public records exist that have not been provided to Mr. Johnson's attorneys." The alleged records originate from the Office of the State Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. On January 9, 1997, the court held a hearing on the motion. During the hearing, CCR represented that on December 16, 1996 (two months after the amended rule 3.850 motion was filed), an investigator went to the Attorney General's Office in Tampa to inspect public records relating to the defendant. During the search, CCR discovered numerous original documents from the state attorney's office for the Thirteenth Circuit. Both assistant state attorney Karen Cox, who handles public records requests for the Thirteenth Circuit, and Candace Sabella, the assistant attorney general assigned to the defendant's case, represented that they had no knowledge of the records prior to December, 1996.

Although CCR's delay in examining the records at the attorney general's office was inexcusable, this court permitted CCR to amend the rule 3.850 motion based upon the newly discovered information. CCR filed an amended motion on January 28, 1997. The amended motion did not raise any new claims for relief, but made references to the materials recently discovered. This court accepted the amended motion and allowed CCR to utilize the new material to support any of the claims for relief. An evidentiary hearing was held on March 3, 4 and 5, 1997.

State v. Johnson orde...