McArthur v. StateMcArthur v. State
No appearance for appellee.
JOANOS, Chief Judge.
Appellant Bennie McArthur appeals the denial of his motion for post-conviction relief, filed pursuant to
This case arose in the context of appellant‘s guilty plea to a charge of aggravated battery, for which he received a sentence of eighty-seven days, representing the time he served in county jail prior to entry of his plea. The factual allegations of the motion reflect that appellant was arrested on April 17, 1990, for the battery of his live-in girl friend, and was confined in jail for sixty-seven days before charges were filed against him. The motion further alleged that when the victim informed the state attorney‘s office she did not wish to prosecute, the case should have been dropped. As a final point, the motion alleged that appellant entered his plea in order to get out of jail.
At the outset, the motion for post-conviction relief shows on its face that appellant had served the sentence under attack. However, the record reflects that at the time he filed the instant motion, appellant was incarcerated in the Madison Correctional Institute in Madison County, Florida. For purposes of
Nevertheless, in the interest of judicial economy, so as to preclude the filing of a successive motion predicated on the same asserted grounds for relief, modified only by the requisite jurisdictional allegation, a brief discussion of the merits of appellant‘s claims is warranted. As to appellant‘s first asserted basis for relief, the purpose of an arraignment is to inform the accused of the nature of the charges against him, and to afford him an opportunity to plead. Ex parte Livingston, 116 Fla. 640, 156 So. 612 (1934). A plea of guilty waives all defects and non-jurisdictional irregularities in the arraignment procedure.
As to appellant‘s second point, the decision to initiate criminal prosecutions for felonies rests with the state attorney, not the victim. “When a prosecuting attorney files an information against a defendant, he conclusively determines that the evidence is adequate to establish probable cause to put the defendant on trial.” State ex rel. Hardy v. Blount, 261 So. 2d 172, 174 (Fla. 1972). The thrust of appellant‘s argument on this point is that he should not have been charged in a domestic dispute where the victim advised the state attorney‘s office that she did not wish to prosecute. Since the decision to charge was the prerogative of the prosecutor, the argument is unavailing. Moreover, appellant‘s bare assertion that he was “forced or convinced” to enter a guilty plea so he could get out of jail is facially insufficient to demonstrate entitlement to relief.
Accordingly, the order denying the motion for post-conviction relief is affirmed.
ZEHMER and KAHN, JJ., concur.