Cheshire v. StateCheshire v. State
Steven Cheshire appeals an order summarily denying his post-conviction motion for DNA testing. See
Cheshire was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the murder of his wife and Darrell Durbin. After a jury trial, Cheshire was convicted of both counts of first-degree murder and received the death penalty for the murder of his wife. After the death penalty on that conviction was vacated, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Cheshire v. State, 568 So. 2d 908 (Fla. 1990).
Six weeks before the murders, Cheshire‘s wife left him and began living with Durbin. In the early morning hours of 30 October 1988, Cheshire‘s wife and Durbin were shot and killed in their home by an intruder. At trial, the state introduced into evidence a blue pullover shirt containing at least one blood stain. That shirt was seized from Cheshire‘s pickup truck upon his arrest. Cheshire states that the evidence custodian of the Putnam County
In Cheshire v. State, 568 So. 2d 908 (Fla. 1990), the supreme court summarized the evidence against him. Witnesses testified that Cheshire had threatened his wife‘s life. On the night of the murders, Cheshire was seen driving his vehicle in the area where the murders took place. The physical evidence was a blood stain on Cheshire‘s shirt and, in the driveway of the residence where the murders took place, a shoe print “most probably” made by Cheshire‘s right shoe. Although the supreme court found that the physical evidence was “scant,” it held that all of the evidence, when considered together, was legally sufficient to support the convictions. Id. at 910, 912-913.
The circuit court denied the Rule 3.853 motion as legally insufficient. The court noted that the DNA tests previously conducted by FDLE were found to be inconclusive because there was not enough blood on the shirt to perform “confirmatory” tests. Attached to the order was a portion of the trial transcript, with testimony indicating that the blood sample was too scant even to determine whether it was human blood. In denying relief, the court noted that Cheshire had not identified what new DNA testing methods would produce a confirmatory result. The court also found that Cheshire had not shown a reasonable possibility of acquittal if the shirt were to be re-examined.
Although characterized as legally insufficient by the court, Cheshire‘s motion was legally sufficient in that it contained all of the required allegations listed in
Rule 3.853 was not intended to provide indigent defendants with a broad entitlement to conduct “fishing expeditions” at public expense in search of new evidence that might exonerate them. We do not suggest that Cheshire, at this stage, is entitled to a re-examination of the shirt for DNA results, or to an evidentiary hearing. We merely hold that the Rule 3.853 motion is legally sufficient and that the trial court should have ordered a response from the state before deciding whether the motion should be summarily denied or set for an evidentiary hearing. See
The court stated that the motion was legally insufficient, but then addressed the motion on the merits. The court attempted to refute Cheshire‘s allegation that scientific developments in DNA testing would produce a definitive result, and referred to
We reverse the order denying relief, and remand the case to the circuit court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
PETERSON and MONACO, JJ., concur.