Amendments to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851(h)

Summary

The Florida Supreme Court adopts amendments to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851(h), governing post-conviction proceedings after a death warrant is signed. The opinion addresses judicial assignment, expedited scheduling, hearing location, successive motions, case management, transcription, preparation of orders, and transmission of the record. The court adopts the proposed amendments with modifications, including deletion of provisions concerning stays of execution and electronic presence of the defendant.

Holdings

1. The Supreme Court of Florida adopted the proposed amendments to rule 3.851(h), with the modifications described in the opinion and minor editorial changes, effective immediately.
2. The court declined to include in rule 3.851(h) the proposed language stating that a stay of execution should be granted only under specified logistical or unavoidable circumstances. Circuit courts retain authority under their all-writs power to enter a stay when the stay application is filed with a post-conviction motion or itself shows grounds on which the defendant might be entitled to post-conviction relief.
3. After a death warrant is signed, the proceedings must be expedited: the case must be assigned promptly to a qualified capital-case judge, given precedence over other cases, heard expeditiously without the ordinary rule 3.851 time limitations, conducted at a location selected by the trial judge, and administered under the rule’s requirements for successive motions, case management, reporting, orders, and immediate record transmission.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Supreme Court of Florida should adopt proposed amendments to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851(h) governing post-conviction proceedings after a death warrant is signed.
2. Whether the proposed provision limiting or describing circuit-court authority to stay execution should be included in the rule.
3. Whether the rule should expressly authorize electronic presence of the defendant when the defendant’s presence is otherwise required.
4. How proceedings after issuance of a death warrant should be expedited and administered.

Disposition

approved