Kevin NELMS, Petitioner,
v.
STATE of Florida, Respondent.
Supreme Court of Florida.
Charles W. Musgrove, West Palm Beach, for petitioner.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Joan Fowler, Bureau Chief, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., and Don M. Rogers, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for respondent.
GRIMES, Judge.
We review Nelms v. State,
Nelms was charged with first-degree murder in 1985 in Palm Beach County, Florida. At that time, a Palm Beach County administrative order divided the county into two separate districts for drawing petit juries. Nelms' petit jury panel was selected from the eastern district of the county. However, the administrative order did not affect the selection of the grand jury, and Nelms' grand jury was selected from the entire county. Nelms filed a pretrial motion to dismiss the indictment because the grand jury had not been summoned from the same geographical area as the petit jury in violation of section 905.01(1), Florida Statutes (1981) (provisions of law governing qualifications, disqualifications, excusals, drawing, summoning, etc., of petit jurors shall apply to grand jurors). The trial court denied the motion. Nelms was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. His pretrial challenge to the grand *442 jury was one of several points raised on appeal. The district court of appeal affirmed his conviction and sentence in a per curiam decision without opinion.
Several years later, this Court determined that the Palm Beach County administrative order was unconstitutional because it systematically excluded a significant portion of the black population from the eastern district jury pool. Spencer v. State,
Nelms relies on our recent decision in Moreland v. State. Moreland, whose petit jury was selected under the same Palm Beach County administrative order, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Moreland filed a motion for postconviction relief, seeking relief on the basis of Spencer. We determined that Spencer was not a major constitutional change of law which can be raised for the first time in a postconviction motion. Moreland,
We indicated in Moreland that had the petitioner failed to raise the issue of the constitutionality of the jury pool at trial and on direct appeal, he would not be entitled to relief.
Accordingly, Nelms is not entitled to relief. We approve the decision below.
It is so ordered.
SHAW, C.J., and OVERTON, McDONALD, KOGAN and HARDING, JJ., concur.
BARKETT, J., concurs in result only.
