Edward T. James v. State of Florida ( 2021 )

Supreme Court of Florida
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No. SC20-1036
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EDWARD T. JAMES,
Appellant,
vs.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
July 8, 2021
PER CURIAM.
Edward T. James, a prisoner under sentence of death, appeals
the trial court’s order summarily dismissing his successive motion
for postconviction relief, which was filed under Florida Rule of
Criminal Procedure 3.851. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, §
3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons we explain, we affirm.
I. BACKGROUND
James pleaded guilty in 1995 to two counts of first-degree
murder and was sentenced to death. James v. State, 695 So. 2d
1229 (Fla. 1997). We affirmed James’s convictions and death
sentences on direct appeal. Id. at 1238. James’s convictions and
sentences became final on December 1, 1997, when the United
States Supreme Court denied certiorari review of the direct appeal
proceeding. James v. Florida, 522 U.S. 1000 (1997); see Fla. R.
Crim. P. 3.851(d)(1)(B) (“For the purposes of this rule, a judgment is
final . . . on the disposition of the petition for writ of certiorari by
the United States Supreme Court, if filed.”).
James filed a motion for postconviction relief on
May 27, 1998. An amended motion was filed on
November 1, 2001. A third amended motion was filed
September 10, 2002. The trial court set an evidentiary
hearing on some of the claims. However, on March 10,
2003, James filed, pro se, a notice of voluntary dismissal
of the postconviction proceedings. The trial court
subsequently held a hearing to determine whether James
was competent and fully understood the consequences of
dismissing the postconviction motion filed on his behalf.
During the hearing, the trial court followed a procedure
mandated by this Court to ensure that James understood
the consequences of discharging counsel and
withdrawing his postconviction motion. In essence,
James was informed by the trial court that his actions
would result in the waiver of any legal barriers to the
State’s ability to enforce the sentence of death. On April
22, 2003, the trial court entered an order discharging
counsel and allowing James to withdraw his
postconviction motion. In the order, the trial court also
notified James that he had thirty days to appeal the
order, and further warned that the time for filing for relief
in the federal court might be affected by the dismissal of
state proceedings. No appeal was filed.
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Subsequently, in November 2005, James contacted
CCRC [Capital Collateral Regional Counsel] and indicated
that he had changed his mind, and he requested
reappointment of counsel to resume postconviction
proceedings. CCRC filed a motion on his behalf in the
trial court seeking to reinstate postconviction
proceedings. After a hearing, the trial court denied the
motion on January 17, 2006. Thereafter, James wrote a
letter to this Court, which was treated as a notice of
appeal from the order denying reinstatement of the
postconviction proceedings.
James v. State, 974 So. 2d 365, 366-67 (Fla. 2008) (footnote
omitted).
In affirming the trial court’s denial of James’s request to
reinstate the postconviction proceedings, we wrote:
In this appeal, James does not attack the validity of
the prior waiver hearing. Rather, it is apparent that
James has simply changed his mind and has decided he
wants “to take up [his] appeals again.” However, we
conclude that a mere change of mind is an insufficient
basis for setting aside a previous waiver. The procedures
we have outlined in Durocher [v. Singletary, 623 So. 2d
482, 483 (Fla. 1993)] and other cases are intended to
allow condemned prisoners to waive postconviction
counsel and dismiss the proceedings only when it can be
determined that such prisoners are competent and fully
understand the consequences and finality attached to a
waiver. Those proceedings are mandated to ensure that
a capital defendant is making an intelligent and knowing
decision while respecting his wishes to determine his
fate. Because there is no dispute that those procedures
were followed here and James has asserted no valid basis
for avoiding his waiver, we affirm the trial court’s order
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denying James’ request to reappoint CCRC to resume
postconviction proceedings.
Id. at 368.
On November 14, 2019, James filed the instant successive
3.851 motion, raising five claims: (1) ineffective assistance of
counsel for failing to adequately investigate and prepare a defense
or challenge the State’s case and encouraging James to plead to all
charges; (2) ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to raise the
issue of James’s competence; (3) James was incompetent at the
time of his state postconviction waiver; (4) James’s death sentences
violate the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments in light of Hurst v.
Florida, 577 U.S. 92 (2016); and (5) cumulative errors deprived
James of a fundamentally fair trial, guaranteed under the Sixth and
Fourteenth Amendments. After holding a case management
conference, the trial court summarily dismissed the successive
motion. This appeal follows.
II. ANALYSIS
In dismissing James’s claim that he was incompetent at the
time of his state postconviction waiver, the trial court wrote:
At the case management conference, the Court first
addressed the timeliness of the [instant successive]
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motion. For the first time, the Defendant argued that he
was incompetent to enter his plea or waive his rights to
pursue collateral relief in 2003. Defendant’s argument
regarding this issue fails. The Defendant has not given
any legal justification for waiting nearly seventeen years
after the voluntary dismissal of his motion to claim he
was incompetent to enter that waiver. The initiation of a
federal petition[1] does not constitute newly discovered
evidence that would authorize a defendant to override a
prior voluntary waiver or overcome the time bar. “To be
considered timely filed as newly discovered evidence, the
successive rule 3.851 motion was required to have been
filed within one year of the date upon which the claim
became discoverable through due diligence.” Jimenez v.
State, 997 So. 2d 1056, 1064 (Fla. 2008), as revised on
denial of reh’g (Sept. 29, 2008), as revised on denial of
reh’g (Dec. 18, 2008). He asserts that he was
incompetent to dismiss his collateral motion, but issues
relating to his competence to waive his rights would have
been discoverable within one year of that waiver. See id.;
Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.851(d)(2). Notably, he did not claim
that he was incompetent to make the decision in his
2006 action to rescind his waiver or at any time until
2019. This Court finds that ground 3 is untimely.
Accordingly, the other substantive claims raised in
grounds 1, 2, and 5 are also untimely.
We conclude that the trial court did not err in dismissing
claims 1, 2, 3, and 5 as untimely. James’s convictions and
sentences have been final for more than twenty-three years, and
James makes no argument as to why he believes these claims were
1. James filed a federal habeas petition in 2018.
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timely or why the trial court erred in dismissing them as untimely.
Nor does he allege that any of the exceptions provided in rule
3.851(d)(2) to the one-year time limitation on motions for
postconviction relief are applicable here. Further, because the
issue of James’s competency to waive his state postconviction
proceedings was raised and resolved in a prior postconviction
proceeding, it is procedurally barred and not subject to relitigation
in the instant proceeding.
As to James’s claim that his death sentences violate the Sixth
and Fourteenth Amendments in light of Hurst, the trial court
correctly noted that not only was this claim untimely under rule
3.851 but also that James would not be entitled to relief under our
recent decision in State v. Poole, 297 So. 3d 487 (Fla. 2020), cert.
denied, 141 S. Ct. 1051 (2021). Moreover, our earlier decision in
Asay v. State, 210 So. 3d 1 (Fla. 2016), precluded relief for James,
whose conviction became final in 1997.
III. CONCLUSION
For these reasons, we affirm the trial court’s order summarily
dismissing James’s successive motion for postconviction relief.
It is so ordered.
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CANADY, C.J., and POLSTON, LABARGA, LAWSON, MUÑIZ,
COURIEL, and GROSSHANS, JJ., concur.
NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION
AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court in and for Seminole County,
Jessica J. Recksiedler, Judge –
Case No. 591993CF003237A000XX
Robert S. Friedman, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, and Karin
L. Moore, Assistant Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Northern
Region, Tallahassee, Florida,
for Appellant
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Patrick
Bobek, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, Florida,
for Appellee
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