CopyCited 28 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 39 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 421, 2014 WL 2609154, 2014 Fla. LEXIS 1887
...actual conflict exists with the court, whereas the prior version of the statute
required that the court appoint substitute counsel if the regional counsel of record
determined that a conflict existed.
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Section 27.7045: Constitutionally Deficient Representation
Section 27.7045, a new provision created by the Act, disqualifies appointed
counsel from the representation of capital defendants for five years 2 if it is
determined that: (1) in two separate capital postconviction proceedings a court held
that c...
...Rather, the Act governs
the administrative procedure under which a death warrant is issued. Therefore, we
conclude that the amendment to section
922.052 does not implicate or violate the
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Section
27.7045: Constitutionally Deficient Representation
In this claim, the Petitioners allege that section
27.7045 unconstitutionally
encroaches on the exclusive jurisdiction of this Court to “regulate the admission of
persons to the practice of law and the discipline of persons admitted.” Art. V, §
15, Fla. Const. The disputed section of the Act states, in full:
Section 7. Section
27.7045, Florida Statutes, is created to read:
27.7045: Capital case proceedings; constitutionally deficient
representation....
...ional
Counsel (RCC) and has established the registry counsel appointment system. See
§§
27.40,
27.511,
27.701, Fla. Stat. (2013). The Legislature also has delineated the
qualifications and duties of these attorneys.
The plain language of section
27.7045 reflects that the Legislature intended
for the five-year prohibition to apply to all “attorney[s] employed by the state or
appointed pursuant to s....
...Rather, it operates as a condition
which, upon application, precludes an attorney from performing certain duties in a
specific area of the law.
- 32 -
“attorney[s] employed by the state or appointed pursuant
27.711” to whom the
disqualification provision of section
27.7045 applies, the statute merely modifies
their statutorily enumerated qualifications....
...utional outcome whenever possible.
Howard,
916 So. 2d at 642. Therefore, although this provision operates to
disqualify state-employed and registry attorneys from representing capital
defendants, we conclude that the disqualification provision of section
27.7045 does
not facially violate the constitution because we conclude that the Legislature
intended for the statutory disqualification provision to apply to all state-employed
attorneys, but not to the twenty elected public defenders, whose qualifications are
defined by the Florida Constitution.6
5. The Florida Constitution requires that a public defender be elected in
each of the twenty judicial circuits. See art. V, § 18, Fla. Const.
6. We further conclude that the disqualification provision of section
27.7045
applies to assistant public defenders because their qualifications are not
constitutionally enumerated.
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Section
27.7081: Capital Postconviction Public Records Production...
CopyPublished | Supreme Court of Florida
...(Committee) filed a report to amend rule 3.112, Minimum
Standards for Attorneys in Capital Cases. The Committee proposed
adding a new paragraph to subdivision (d), List of Qualified Conflict
Counsel, to include a list in each circuit court of counsel
disqualified pursuant to section 27.7045, Florida Statutes (2020)
(Capital case proceedings; constitutionally deficient representation)
to represent individuals either charged with a capital offense or
sentenced to death.
With slight modification to the Committee’s proposal, we
amend rule 3.112(d) as follows....
...First, we retitle subdivision (d) to
“Lists of Qualified and Disqualified Conflict Counsel.” Next, we add
new subdivision (d)(3), which provides as follows:
The chief judge for each circuit shall maintain a list of
counsel who are disqualified to provide capital case
representation pursuant to section 27.7045, Florida
Statutes, and such list and any amendments thereto
shall be forwarded to the chief judge of every other
circuit.
Accordingly, we amend Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure
3.112 as reflected in the appendix to this opinion....
...(a)-(c) [No changes]
(d) Lists of Qualified and Disqualified Conflict Counsel.
(1)-(2) [No changes]
(3) The chief judge for each circuit shall maintain a list of counsel who
are disqualified to provide capital case representation pursuant to section 27.7045,
Florida Statutes, and such list and any amendments thereto shall be forwarded to
the chief judge of every other circuit.
(e)-(l) [No changes]
Committee Comments...
