Summary
The Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Falcone’s application for post-conviction relief arising from his 2001 convictions entered on nolo contendere pleas. The court held that Falcone’s failure to provide a transcript prevented meaningful appellate review and concluded that several additional arguments concerned separate proceedings and were not properly before the court.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Falcone could obtain appellate review of the denial of post-conviction relief without providing a transcript of the Superior Court hearing.
- Whether claims concerning the 2003 arrest, probation-violation proceedings, internal-affairs investigation, and preliminary hearing were properly before the Court in an appeal from denial of post-conviction relief concerning the unrelated 2001 conviction.
Holdings
- An appellant's failure to provide a transcript of the post-conviction-relief hearing necessary to evaluate the claimed errors precludes meaningful appellate review and requires affirmance of the lower court's findings and judgment.
- Issues concerning separate criminal charges and proceedings that are unrelated to the post-conviction petition under review are not properly before the Court in that appeal.
Key quotations
“If the appealing party fails to provide a sufficient transcript, the Court cannot perform a meaningful review and has no choice but to uphold the lower court’s findings.” (363)
“Unless the appeal is limited to a challenge to rulings of law that appear sufficiently on the record and the party accepts the findings of the trial justice as correct, the appeal must fail.” (363)
Factual background
Falcone was charged in 2001 with possession of marijuana and eluding the police, entered nolo contendere pleas, and was sentenced to three years with nine months of home confinement and the remainder on probation. After a 2003 arrest on unrelated controlled-substance charges, he was declared a probation violator and sentenced to serve eighteen months. He later sought post-conviction relief from the 2001 plea, but his appeal from the denial of that petition did not include a transcript of the evidentiary hearing and improperly combined issues arising from the separate 2003 proceedings.
Procedural history
Falcone pleaded nolo contendere in the Superior Court to possession of marijuana and eluding the police and received a sentence including home confinement and probation. After a later arrest and probation-violation proceedings, he filed a petition for post-conviction relief from the 2001 plea. Following an evidentiary hearing, the Superior Court denied relief, and Falcone appealed without providing a transcript of the post-conviction hearing.
Remand instructions
The papers in the case were remanded to the Superior Court; the denial of post-conviction relief was affirmed.