Raleigh PORTER, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Supreme Court of Florida.
*34 Douglas J. Chumbley of Kimbrell & Hamann, Miami, for appellant.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen. and Robert J. Landry, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
Raleigh Porter, a state prisoner under a current death warrant, appeals the trial court's denial without evidentiary hearing of his Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion for post-conviction relief. Porter also seeks a stay of execution. We have jurisdiction pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(1) of the Florida Constitution. We affirm the trial court's denial of relief and deny the requested stay.
A jury convicted Porter of the first-degree murder of an elderly couple in their home and recommended that he be sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial court, however, disagreed with that recommendation and imposed two death sentences. On appeal this Court affirmed the convictions, but remanded for resentencing because of an irregularity in the original sentencing. Porter v. State,
Porter raised the following issues in his 3.850 motion: 1) ineffective assistance of trial and resentencing counsel by failing to develop and present mitigating evidence; 2) trial counsel's conflict of interest; 3) allowing a prejudiced grand juror to serve; 4) no finding that Porter specifically intended to kill the victims; 5) jury qualification creates pro-prosecution, conviction-prone, unrepresentative juries; 6) "heinous, atrocious, or cruel" is an unconstitutional aggravating factor; 7) unconstitutionality of the felony-murder aggravating factor being applied to a felony murder; 8) electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment; 9) trial court improperly overrode jury's recommendation; 10) arbitrary application of *35 the death penalty; and 11) insufficiency of the evidence to support both felony murder and the underlying felony. After hearing each side's argument, the trial court denied the motion for an evidentiary hearing along with all other requested relief. Porter now claims that the trial court erred by not holding an evidentiary hearing on his 3.850 motion and by not granting the sought-after relief.
This Court has emphasized that trial courts should grant evidentiary hearings on 3.850 motions when warranted. Jones v. State,
Porter's first point raises the spectre of ineffective assistance of counsel. The United States Supreme Court set the standard on that subject in Strickland v. Washington,
First, the defendant must show that counsel's performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the "counsel" guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. This requires showing that counsel's errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable. Unless a defendant makes both showings, it cannot be said that the conviction or death sentence resulted from a breakdown in the adversary process that renders the result unreliable.
Porter's presentation to the trial court fails to meet even the first part of the Strickland test. Porter's current attorneys produced affidavits from family members and others describing Porter's earlier life and problems, school records, and psychological evaluations, as well as other items, to support their contention that his previous counsel had rendered substandard assistance by not presenting this material at trial and resentencing. Neither we nor the trial court, however, can overlook trial counsels' success in securing a jury recommendation of life imprisonment without this material. Also, in denying relief the trial court pointed out that Porter's resentencing counsel filed a witness list that contained the name of Porter's mother, presumably in anticipation of presenting the instant or similar mitigating evidence. Porter's mother did not testify, however, and the trial court, being familiar with that attorney, stated "following such an obvious awareness of the possibility of that form of mitigating evidence and circumstance,... the failure to produce it [Mrs. Porter's testimony] then [at resentencing] was a result of the considered and ... [tactical] decision as opposed to one of negligence." We agree.
In overriding the jury's recommendation the trial judge stated his conviction that the jury had been unduly influenced by the lurid description of an electrocution. We upheld his refusal to be swayed by such a presentation.
The remainder of Porter's points could have been, should have been, or were raised on direct appeal. They are not, therefore, cognizable on collateral attack. Sireci v. State,
The claim that one of Porter's trial counsel labored under a conflict of interest is belied by the record. No meaningful conflict of interest impeded Porter's counsel. C.f. Webb v. State,
We also find no error in not holding a hearing regarding Porter's attack on one of the grand jurors. On appeal Porter argued error in the trial court's denying his motion to voir dire the grand jury "regarding their legal qualification, to inquire into the state of mind of the jurors to discover whether there were any facts that would prevent the grand jury from acting impartially and without prejudice." Porter,
A grand jury determines the state's ability to bring someone to trial; another jury determines guilt or innocence. An attack on a grand jury indictment because of the qualifications of the grand jurors must be made before a verdict is rendered on that indictment. See § 905.05, Fla. Stat. (1983); State v. Silva,
Addressing the remaining points in summary fashion, Porter's reliance on Enmund v. Florida,
We find no error in the trial court's ruling here. Therefore, we affirm the trial court's denial of an evidentiary hearing and of the requested relief. We deny the application for stay of execution.
It is so ordered.
BOYD, C.J., and ADKINS, OVERTON, McDONALD, EHRLICH and SHAW, JJ., concur.
NOTES
Notes
[*] United States v. Martinez,
