State ex rel. Butterworth v. Kenny

• Decision Date: 23 April 1998
• Docket Number: No. 92343,92343
• Citation: 714 So.2d 404
• Parties: 23 Fla. L. Weekly S229 STATE of Florida ex rel. Robert A. BUTTERWORTH, etc., Petitioner, v. Peter KENNY, etc., et al., Respondents.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 404

714 So.2d 404

23 Fla. L. Weekly S229

STATE of Florida ex rel. Robert A. BUTTERWORTH, etc., Petitioner, v. Peter KENNY, etc., et al., Respondents.

No. 92343.

Supreme Court of Florida.

April 23, 1998.

Rehearing Denied July 13, 1998.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Carolyn M. Snurkowski, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Petitioner.

Peter Warren Kenny, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Southern Region, Martin J. McClain, Litigation Director, and Todd G. Scher, Chief Assistant CCR, Office of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel--South, Miami, and Gregory C. Smith, Capital Collateral Counsel, Northern Region, and Sylvia W. Smith, Assistant CCC--Office of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel--North, Tallahassee, for Respondents.

OVERTON, Justice.

Attorney General Robert A. Butterworth petitions this Court for a writ of quo warranto seeking to prevent the Office of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel for the Southern and Northern Regions (CCRC), respectively, and the other named respondents from representing death row inmates in civil rights lawsuits and to require withdrawal of their representation from all such pending civil cases. ¹ We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(8), Fla. Const. The issue in this case is whether CCRC's representation of capital defendants is limited to traditional postconviction relief actions that challenge only the validity of the conviction and sentence or whether that representation includes the authority to bring civil actions that challenge the means and the methods of carrying out a validly imposed sentence. For the reasons expressed, we find that CCRC's representation is limited by statute to actions challenging the validity of a defendant's conviction and sentence such as habeas corpus, coram nobis, and actions established by this Court in Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure 3.850, 3.851, and 3.852. We grant the petition and find that CCRC was not statutorily authorized to initiate the federal civil rights action at issue in this cause.

The relevant facts reflect that in 1997 CCRC initiated a civil rights lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994), seeking declaratory and injunctive relief regarding whether the functioning of Florida's electric chair rendered it an unconstitutional method of execution. The State subsequently filed this action, asserting that CCRC is without authority to litigate any civil action on behalf of its clients. After the State filed this action, the federal district court issued summary judgment in the federal civil rights action in favor of the State. See Jones v. McAndrew, 996 F.Supp. 1439 (Fla.N.D. 1998)(Order Granting Motion for Summary Judgment). Although the State has prevailed in that action, we find that we should address the issue raised in this cause because it is of great public importance and likely to recur. ²

Critical to the issue before us is the construction and interpretation of the authority granted to CCRC under section 27.702, Florida Statutes (1997). That chapter directs CCRC to represent

each person convicted and sentenced to death in this state for the sole purpose of instituting and prosecuting collateral actions challenging the legality of the judgment and sentence imposed against such person in the state courts, federal courts in this state, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

§ 27.702(1)(emphasis added). Section 27.7001 sets forth the legislative intent in carrying forth that representation, providing:

It is the intent of the Legislature to create part IV of this chapter, consisting of ss. 27.7001-27.708, inclusive, to provide for the collateral representation of any person convicted and sentenced to death in this state, so that collateral legal proceedings to challenge any Florida capital conviction and sentence may be commenced in a timely manner and so as to assure the people of this state that the judgments of its courts may be regarded with the finality to which they are entitled in the interests of justice. It is the further intent of the Legislature that collateral representation shall not include representation during retrials, resentencings, proceedings commenced under chapter 940, or civil litigation.

(Emphasis added.)

As noted by the above two sections of chapter 27, in providing collateral representation to defendants sentenced to death, the legislature has clearly expressed its intent that such representation is for the sole purpose of "challenging the legality of the judgment and sentence imposed," and that such representation is not to include "civil litigation."

CCRC argues that the legislative intent expressed in section 27.7001 to restrict CCRC from representing capital defendants in civil litigation has no legal effect. It argues that the intent language merely suggests a legislative policy preference and should not be construed to impose restrictions on CCRC's representation. CCRC contends that a finding that it cannot engage in any civil litigation on behalf of its clients would prevent it from filing and litigating petitions for writs of habeas corpus because such actions are civil in nature. CCRC also argues that any application of section 27.7001 to bar it from engaging in any civil litigation would violate its clients' rights to due process and equal protection because it would constitute an arbitrary application of the law and would prevent it from filing claims that other inmates, if represented by non-CCRC attorneys, could pursue. We reject these arguments.

As CCRC recognized at oral argument, both the United States Supreme Court and this Court have held that defendants have no constitutional right to representation in postconviction relief proceedings. Under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, an indigent defendant is entitled to counsel at the state's expense at the trial stage of a criminal proceeding, Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963), and for the initial appeal from a judgment and sentence of the trial court, Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811 (1963). That right, however, does not extend to postconviction relief proceedings. Pennsylvania v. Finley, 481 U.S. 551, 107 S.Ct. 1990, 95 L.Ed.2d 539 (1987)(constitution does not require states to provide counsel in postconviction proceedings). As noted by the United States Supreme Court in Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U.S. 600, 94 S.Ct. 2437, 41 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974), there is a distinction between the need for counsel in preconviction proceedings and the need for counsel in postconviction proceedings. That distinction is based on the fact that during the initial proceedings, the State is presenting witnesses and arguing to a jury in an attempt to strip from the defendant the presumption of innocence; whereas, once the conviction and sentence become final, the presumption of innocence is no longer present and the defendant, in seeking postconviction relief, acts to "upset the prior determination of guilt." 417 U.S. at 611, 94 S.Ct. at 2444.

This distinction holds true even where the defendant has been sentenced to death. Although the United States Supreme Court has stated that death is different and although no person has been executed in this state in recent years who has not had counsel at the time of execution, that Court has determined that there is no right to counsel for postconviction relief proceedings even where a defendant has been sentenced to death. See Murray v. Giarratano, 492 U.S. 1, 109 S.Ct. 2765, 106 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989) (holding that Finley applies to inmates under sentence of death as well as to other inmates). See also Jones v. Crosby, 137 F.3d 1279 (11th Cir.1998). As the Supreme Court stated in Murray, "[t]he additional safeguards imposed by the Eighth Amendment at the trial stage of a capital case ... are sufficient to assure the reliability of the process by which the death penalty is imposed." 492 U.S. at 10, 109 S.Ct. at 2770. See also Hill v. Jones, 81 F.3d 1015, 1025 (11th Cir.1996)(no constitutional right to postconviction relief counsel in this circuit; ineffective assistance of postconviction relief counsel not cognizable claim); Lambrix v. State, 698 So.2d 247, 248 (Fla.1996)(based on Murray, claims of ineffective assistance of postconviction counsel do not present a valid basis for relief), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 1064, 140 L.Ed.2d 125 (1998). All that is required in postconviction relief proceedings, whether capital or non-capital, is that the defendant have meaningful access to the judicial process. Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977)(furnishing access to adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law may fulfill a State's obligation to provide prisoners' right of access to courts), disapproved in part by Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343, 116 S.Ct. 2174, 135 L.Ed.2d 606 (1996) (Bounds disapproved to extent it can be read to require state to enable prisoner to discover grievances and litigate effectively once in court; state need only provide inmates with tools needed to attack sentences directly or collaterally).

Like most other states, Florida, to ensure the credibility and constitutionality of its death penalty process, has provided postconviction representation only in cases where the defendant has been sentenced to death. This statutory right to representation acts to ensure meaningful access to the courts in a complex area of the law and to ensure that our death penalty process is constitutional. As Justice O'Connor noted in her concurring opinion in Murray,

[Bounds] allows the States considerable discretion in assuring that those imprisoned in their jails obtain meaningful access to the judicial process. Beyond the requirements of Bounds, the matter is one of legislative choice based on difficult policy considerations and the...