Medina v. State
| Decision Date | 10 February 1997 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 89758,89762,s. 89758 |
| Citation | 690 So.2d 1241 |
| Parties | 22 Fla. L. Weekly S75 Pedro MEDINA, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Martin J. McClain, Litigation Director and Jennifer M. Corey, Assistant CCR, Office of the Capital Collateral Representative, Tallahassee, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General; and Kenneth S. Nunnelley and Judy T. Rush, Assistant Attorneys General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.
Pedro Medina appeals orders entered by the circuit court denying appellant's motions for postconviction relief. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We reverse and remand for an evidentiary hearing pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.812. We find there is a need for an evidentiary hearing because in the submissions to the circuit court pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.811 there were three experts stating Medina is competent to be executed and three other experts stating Medina is not competent to be executed. We affirm as to all other issues.
Medina came to the United States from Cuba in 1980 when he was nineteen years old. Medina eventually lived with his half-sister in Orlando. Dorothy James, the victim, lived in an apartment next to Medina's half-sister. James befriended Medina.
James was found dead in her apartment on April 4, 1982. She had been gagged, stabbed multiple times, and left to die. Early in the morning of April 8, 1982, Medina was found asleep in James' automobile at a rest stop on Interstate 10 near Lake City and was arrested for theft of the automobile. The next day, detectives from Orange County investigating the murder of James interviewed Medina in Medina requested a psychiatric examination and was examined by two psychiatrists. Each determined that Medina met the statutory criteria for competence to stand trial. The trial court found Medina competent to stand trial.
the Columbia County Jail about the auto theft and the murder. Medina's explanation of how he came to be in James' vehicle was not believed by the detectives. 1 Medina was arrested and indicted for the murder of James
Medina was tried before a jury in Orange County on March 15 through 18, 1983. Medina testified in his own defense. Medina denied murdering James. However, Medina admitted being in James' apartment the night of the murder. Medina admitted that he was in James' apartment when James was dead. Medina admitted that a hat found by police detectives on a bed near James' body was his hat. Medina admitted taking James' automobile after she was murdered. Medina admitted driving James' automobile to Tampa and offering to sell the automobile in Tampa to a man with whom he engaged in a fight at the time of the attempted sale. The man to whom Medina was selling the automobile testified that he gave Medina $250 for the automobile, but then Medina left with the automobile. When law enforcement officers searched the vehicle following Medina's arrest, a knife was found in the vehicle.
Medina was convicted of first-degree murder and auto theft. The jury, by a ten-to-two vote, recommended the death penalty for the murder conviction. The trial court found two aggravating circumstances 2 and a single mitigating circumstance. 3 The court found the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstance and sentenced Medina to death. This Court affirmed Medina's convictions and sentences. Medina v. State, 466 So.2d 1046 (Fla.1985).
Medina then filed a motion for postconviction relief pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. The trial court determined that twelve of his fourteen claims were or could have been raised on direct appeal and therefore were procedurally barred. The court held an evidentiary hearing on the other two claims: withholding of material, exculpatory evidence by the State in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and ineffective assistance of counsel during the sentencing phase in that counsel failed to investigate and present compelling and available mitigation evidence. The trial court denied all relief, and this Court affirmed the denial. Medina v. State, 573 So.2d 293 (Fla.1990). Medina filed a state petition for writ of habeas corpus, and this Court denied the petition. Medina v. Dugger, 586 So.2d 317 (Fla.1991).
Medina thereafter filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus alleging numerous constitutional violations. The district court denied the petition. On appeal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Medina raised thirteen claims, only three of which the court of appeals found merited discussion. Medina v. Singletary, 59 F.3d 1095 (11th Cir.1995), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 2505, 135 L.Ed.2d 195 (1996). One of the issues discussed by the court was Medina's claim that he was incompetent to be tried. Id. at 1105. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of Medina's petition. Id. at 1114. The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. Medina v. Singletary, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 2505, 135 L.Ed.2d 195 (1996).
On February 17, 1995, Medina, proceeding pro se, filed a civil rights action pursuant to 42 United States Code, section 1983 (1993), against the Capital Collateral Representative (CCR) and several of the attorneys in the CCR office who had been involved in his representation. The claim was centered mainly upon allegations that CCR's attorneys The Governor signed Medina's death warrant on October 30, 1996. The execution was scheduled for December 5, 1996. Medina filed a motion for change of counsel, which the trial court granted with the caveat that CCR continue to represent Medina. This Court upheld the trial court's ruling in an order directing CCR to continue representing Medina. Next, Medina filed in this Court a petition for all writs jurisdiction alleging that execution by electrocution is per se cruel and/or unusual punishment. This Court denied the petition, as did the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. Medina v. Butterworth, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 553, 136 L.Ed.2d 435 (1996). Medina filed a motion to disqualify the trial judge from presiding over subsequent motions relating to Medina's death warrant. The judge disqualified himself and appointed another judge to consider Medina's motions.
had not effectively represented him in the state proceedings and in the federal habeas proceeding. The federal district court dismissed the claim. Medina v. Minerva, 907 F.Supp. 379 (M.D.Fla.1995). Medina filed a notice of appeal on December 12, 1995, which was dismissed on July 3, 1996.
On December 2, 1996, Medina's counsel wrote a letter to the Governor asking for a stay of execution in light of a mental health expert's assessment that Medina was not competent to be executed. The letter invoked the provisions of section 922.07, Florida Statutes (1995), which sets forth an executive procedure for determining competence to be executed, and therefore the Governor stayed the execution pending a psychiatric determination of competence for execution. Pursuant to section 922.07, the Governor appointed a commission of three psychiatrists to determine whether Medina understood the nature and effect of the death penalty and why it is being imposed upon him. The psychiatric commission examined Medina and forwarded its findings in a report to the Governor on December 10, 1996. The report states that "it is the unanimous opinion of the members of this commission that Mr. Medina understands the nature and effect of the death penalty and why it has been imposed upon him." Based upon the commission's findings, the Governor lifted Medina's stay of execution on January 6, 1997. The Governor rescheduled Medina's execution for the week beginning January 27, 1997, and ending February 3, 1997.
On January 8, 1997, the circuit court held a telephone status conference in which counsel for Medina and the State discussed the scheduling of hearings on pending motions, what motions would be heard, and what was going to be filed. On January 8, 1997, the circuit court noticed a hearing for 9:30 a.m. on January 14, 1997, on a motion to withdraw by CCR, a motion to determine the competence of the defendant to proceed in the rule 3.850 proceeding, and a motion to appoint counsel for clemency proceedings. On January 10, 1997, counsel for Medina filed, pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.811, a combined emergency motion for a stay of execution pending judicial determination of competence. This motion was not noticed for hearing on January 14. Thus, Medina filed requests for two separate competency determinations: one on his competence to proceed in the 3.850 proceeding and one on his competence to be executed.
At the hearing on January 14, 1997, the circuit court first denied CCR's motion to withdraw and motion to appoint counsel for clemency proceeding. The court then heard extensive argument on the motion to determine the competence of defendant to proceed in postconviction proceedings pursuant to rule 3.850. The State contended that our decision in Jackson v. State, 452 So.2d 533 (Fla.1984), controlled. In Jackson, we held that a postconviction defendant is not entitled to a judicial determination of his competence to assist counsel in preparing either a 3.850 motion or a petition for writ of habeas corpus. Alternatively, the State noted that this Court was considering a case with an issue similar to one contained in Jackson. The State argued that in view of the short time period until the execution, the circuit court should consider evidence and rule on Medina's competence to proceed. The State asserted that it was ready at that time to put on the testimony of the three psychiatrists who had examined Medina at the request of On January 15, 1997, the circuit court entered an order on the motion for determination...
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