Glen Edward Rogers v. State of Florida

Summary

The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed the summary denial of Glen Edward Rogers's third successive motion for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851. The court held that alleged childhood sexual abuse and evidence of abuse at the Training Institute of Central Ohio did not qualify as newly discovered evidence because trial counsel could have discovered the information through due diligence. The court therefore concluded that no evidentiary hearing was required.

Holdings

1. A circuit court may summarily deny a Rule 3.851 newly discovered evidence claim when the motion, files, and record conclusively refute either prong of the Jones test; because the record refuted the first prong, no evidentiary hearing was required.
2. The alleged childhood sexual abuse was not newly discovered evidence because trial counsel could have discovered it through due diligence.
3. Evidence concerning systemic sexual abuse at the Training Institute of Central Ohio was not newly discovered because articles describing the abuse were published before Rogers's penalty phase and could have been discovered by trial counsel.
4. A successive Rule 3.851 motion filed more than one year after the judgment and sentence became final must establish an applicable timeliness exception; otherwise, the motion may be denied as untimely.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court erred by summarily denying Rogers's third successive postconviction motion without an evidentiary hearing.
2. Whether Rogers's allegations of childhood sexual abuse and evidence of systemic abuse at the Training Institute of Central Ohio constituted newly discovered evidence under the first prong of the Jones test.
3. Whether the successive motion was subject to the one-year time limitation in Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851(d)(1) and whether a timeliness exception was established.

Disposition

affirmed