Background

• Coursey pleaded guilty in 2010 to four counts of attempted sexual battery on a victim under 12, four counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a minor, five counts of sexual battery on a child, and one count of showing obscene material to a minor.
• Sentence included forty years in prison with a twenty-five-year mandatory minimum, lifetime sexual offender probation for some molestation offenses, five years for showing obscene material, and thirty years for remaining offenses; no direct appeal was filed.
• Coursey filed a Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 postconviction motion challenging trial counsel's effectiveness in not moving to suppress his confession as involuntary.
• The postconviction court denied the claim, relying on Coursey’s statements at the change-of-plea hearing that he discussed the case with counsel and understood his rights.
• The court treated the claim as an attempt to go behind a knowing and voluntary plea waiver under Stano and related cases, rather than as a standalone ineffective-assistance claim.
• The appellate court reversed the denial of the specific ineffectiveness claim, remanded to strike the claim with leave for Coursey to amend within sixty days; otherwise, the motion was affirmed.

Issues

Key Cases Cited

• Campbell v. State, 139 So.3d 490 (Fla. 2d DCA 2014) (ineffective-assistance claim for failing to file a suppression motion is legally sufficient and not waived by a plea)
• Spencer v. State, 889 So.2d 868 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004) (plea waiver does not automatically bar claims for ineffective assistance)
• Stano v. State, 520 So.2d 278 (Fla. 1988) (plea waivers may limit claims raised after a plea)
• Gidney v. State, 925 So.2d 1076 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006) (waiver principles in Florida postconviction context)
• Dean v. State, 580 So.2d 808 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991) (plea waivers and postconviction challenges)
• Spera v. State, 971 So.2d 754 (Fla. 2007) (timely postconviction motions and amendments procedures)