Moreland In and For Twelfth Judicial Circuit v. Smith, 95-02623

• Decision Date: 17 November 1995
• Docket Number: No. 95-02623,95-02623
• Citation: 664 So.2d 1039
• Parties: 20 Fla. L. Weekly D2546 Earl MORELAND, as State Attorney, In and For the TWELFTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, Petitioner, v. Honorable Gilbert SMITH, and William R. Hill, a/k/a Billy Boyd, a/k/a Billy Wood, Respondents.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 1039

664 So.2d 1039

20 Fla. L. Weekly D2546

Earl MORELAND, as State Attorney, In and For the TWELFTH

JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, Petitioner, v. Honorable Gilbert SMITH, and William R. Hill, a/k/a Billy

Boyd, a/k/a Billy Wood, Respondents.

No. 95-02623.

District Court of Appeal of Florida,

Second District.

Nov. 17, 1995.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 11, 1995.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Robert J. Landry, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Petitioner.

Harmon Karasick, Bradenton, for Respondent, William Russell Hill.

PER CURIAM.

In its petition for writ of certiorari, the state seeks review of an order from the trial court declaring death not to be a possible penalty in respondent Billy Hill's prosecution for first degree murder. Because the court below erroneously found that the state had previously waived the option of seeking the death penalty, we quash the order under review.

Hill entered into a negotiated plea to first degree murder in 1978 with the understanding that he would not be sentenced to death.

In 1994 he successfully moved to have the judgment and sentence vacated because the trial court, the prosecutor and the defense attorney made no mention during the plea colloquy that the life sentence which was to be imposed carried with it a mandatory minimum twenty-five years in prison.

Thereafter his new trial counsel filed a motion "to declare death not a possible penalty," which motion was granted. In the oral pronouncement of the ruling, the court relied upon a finding that at the time of the original plea the state had asserted that this was not a death case. Moreover, the court accepted defense counsel's argument that the imposition of a death sentence would make impossible the constitutional requirement that on resentencing Hill be credited with all time previously served. The state's timely petition followed.

Our review of the record belies the basis for which the trial court determined that the state had waived its right to seek a death penalty. At no point during the original plea in 1978 did the state announce, or even hint for that matter, that it had determined that this was not a legitimate death case. What the state did do was convey an offer to Hill that a death penalty would not be sought if he wished to enter into a negotiated plea for life.

When a criminal defendant seeks to withdraw a negotiated plea, or to attack it collaterally, if he is successful he loses the benefit of the bargain he has...