LeDuc v. State

• Decision Date: 10 June 1982
• Docket Number: No. 60531,60531
• Citation: 415 So.2d 721
• Court: Florida Supreme Court
• Parties: John W. LeDUC, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Page 721

415 So.2d 721

John W. LeDUC, Appellant, v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 60531.

Supreme Court of Florida.

June 10, 1982.

John H. Hall, Steven Klugman, Mitchell A. Karlan, Debevoise & Plimpton, New York City, Mary Charlotte McCall, Davis, Kiesling & McCall, Harry L. Witte, Tallahassee, and Jack Behr, Public Defender, Pensacola, for appellant.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Wallace E. Allbritton, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.

ALDERMAN, Justice.

LeDuc appeals the denial of his Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion on the basis that the trial court erred in not granting him an evidentiary hearing because, he alleges, the motions, files, and record in his case do not conclusively show that he is entitled to no relief.We agree insofar as LeDuc's allegations pertaining to the voluntariness of his guilty plea and ineffective assistance of counsel.Both of these grounds are appropriate bases for collateral attack.Knight v. State, 394 So.2d 997(Fla.1981);Robinson v. State, 373 So.2d 898(Fla.1979).

LeDuc pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl.The sentencing jury returned an advisory sentence of death, and he was sentenced to death by the trial court.While his direct appeal was pending here, we relinquished jurisdiction to the trial court to enter written findings of fact in support of his sentence and later relinquished jurisdiction to the trial court with directions to consider a psychiatric report of LeDuc prepared by the Devereux school.The trial court reaffirmed its denial of LeDuc's motion for certification as a mentally disordered sex offender and reaffirmed its imposition of the death penalty.We affirmed the convictions and death sentence.LeDuc v. State, 365 So.2d 149(Fla.1978), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 885, 100 S.Ct. 175, 62 L.Ed.2d 114(1979).

Thereafter, on November 17, 1980, LeDuc filed a Rule 3.850 motion in which he alleged that he was denied effective assistance of counsel for several reasons which he enumerated in great detail.LeDuc also contended that his convictions were invalid because they were based upon guilty pleas not knowingly and voluntarily entered into.He alleged, among other things, that his trial counsel coerced him to plead guilty and that his counsel failed to accurately relate to LeDuc the actual terms of the plea bargain and threatened to leave him without counsel on the day of trial if he did not agree to plead guilty.These claims are intertwined since the alleged involuntariness of his guilty pleas partially rests on the alleged ineffectiveness of his counsel.In his motion, LeDuc also raised a multitude of additional grounds.

Without holding an evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied the Rule 3.850 motion and found that the allegations did not constitute legal grounds for granting a new trial or release of LeDuc.In support of its order, the trial court attached the transcripts of LeDuc's plea and sentencing proceedings.

We hold that only the claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel and involuntariness of the guilty pleas warrant an evidentiary hearing.The motion and attached transcripts do not conclusively show that LeDuc is entitled to no relief, and therefore an evidentiary hearing is required by Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, which provides in pertinent part:

If the motion and the files and records in the case conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief, the motion shall be denied without a hearing.In those instances when such denial is not predicated upon the legal insufficiency of the motion on its face, a copy of that portion of the files and records which conclusively shows that the prisoner is entitled to no relief shall be attached to the order.Unless the motion and the files and records of the case conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief, the court shall cause notice thereof to be served upon the prosecuting attorney of the court, grant a prompt hearing thereon, determine the issues and make findings of fact and conclusions of law with respect thereto.If the court finds that the judgment was rendered without jurisdiction, or that the sentence imposed was not authorized by law or is otherwise open to collateral attack, or that there has been such a denial or infringement of the constitutional rights of the prisoner as to render the judgment vulnerable to collateral attack, the court shall vacate and set the judgment aside and shall discharge the prisoner or resentence him or grant him a new trial or correct the sentence as may appear appropriate.

In evaluating LeDuc's claim that his pleas were involuntary, the trial court should follow our decision in Robinson v. State, wherein we explained the different standards to be applied where a guilty plea is withdrawn prior to sentence and where a guilty plea is challenged after sentence.We explained that after a sentence is imposed, the burden is on the defendant to prove that a manifest injustice has occurred, and we referred to our decision in Williams v. State, 316 So.2d 267(Fla.1975), in which we discussed in detail the standards that apply in these two situations.In Williams, we agreed with the American Bar Association Standards of Criminal Justice relating to pleas of guilty ¹ requiring that a manifest injustice must be demonstrated by a defendant after sentence is imposed.Before a sentence is imposed, Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.170(f) provides:

(f) Withdrawal of Plea of Guilty.The court may, in its discretion, and shall upon good cause, at any time before a sentence, permit a plea of guilty to be withdrawn and, if judgment of conviction has been entered thereof, set aside such judgment, and allow a plea of not guilty, or, with the consent of the prosecuting attorney, allow a plea of guilty of a lesser included offense, or...