Beach v. State
Beach v. State
Opinion of the Court
OPINION ON REMAND
The Supreme Court of Florida accepted jurisdiction and reviewed the question certified in our prior opinion filed on July 31, 1990, in this case.
. The question certified was phrased in light of the inclusion of certain misdemeanor convic
IS THE DEFENDANTS STATEMENT UNDER OATH THAT HE WAS NOT PROVIDED NOR OFFERED COUNSEL AT THE PROCEEDINGS RESULTING IN PRIOR CONVICTIONS SUFFICIENT TO PUT THE STATE TO THE BURDEN OF PROVING THAT SUCH CONVICTIONS WERE IN FACT COUNSELED OR THAT COUNSEL WAS KNOWINGLY WAIVED?
Beach, 564 So.2d at 614.
Concurring Opinion
(specially concurring).
I concur in the above opinion, but feel it appropriate to write about a matter that is left unclear in the supreme court’s opinion.
The supreme court’s opinion recognizes that a criminal defendant’s right to counsel is guaranteed under both the United States Constitution and the Florida Constitution. The court cites Baldasar v. Illinois, 446 U.S. 222, 100 S.Ct. 1585, 64 L.Ed.2d 169, reh. denied, 447 U.S. 930, 100 S.Ct. 3030, 65 L.Ed.2d 1125 (1980), as authority for the scope and implementation of the federal constitutional right to counsel in respect to prosecutions for misdemeanors and the prohibition against using misdemeanor convictions in a subsequent case to enhance the length of a defendant’s sentence to imprisonment when such misdemeanor convictions were obtained without representation by counsel so guaranteed (i.e., a criminal offense punishable by more than six months’ imprisonment, or. the defendant is convicted of a misdemeanor offense and is actually subjected to a term of imprisonment).
The Baldasar opinion, however, does not necessarily set the scope of the right to counsel in cases under state law. As the second district noted in Leffew v. State, 518 So.2d 1376, 1378 (Fla. 2d DCA 1988):
Thus, it appears that the statement that an “uncounseled conviction may not be used to enhance a sentence on a subsequent conviction unless the defendant waived his right to counsel” cannot be used as a general rule without looking to the specific facts of each case. The key is that an uncounseled conviction may not be used for enhancement if the defendant in fact had a right to counsel in the prior proceedings.
Therefore, it is necessary to look not only to the federal constitutional right to counsel described in the pertinent decisions of the United States Supreme Court, but also to state law governing the right to counsel in misdemeanor cases.
Consistent with this approach, the supreme court’s opinion in this case further cites to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.160 as authority for the implementation of the right to counsel guaranteed in article I, section 16, of the Florida Constitution. However, that rule alone does not define the extent of this right under Florida law implementing the constitutional provision; reference must also be made to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.130(c) and section 27.51, Florida Statutes (1991). Section 27.51(1) guarantees an indigent defendant the right to representation by the public defender when the defendant is un
The supreme court’s opinion in this case describes the defendant’s burden, when showing entitlement to counsel, as requiring an averment under oath “that the offense involved was punishable by more than six months of imprisonment or that the defendant was actually subjected to a term of imprisonment.” In so stating, the opinion has accurately characterized the federal right to counsel under United States Supreme Court decisions, but apparently has overlooked the more expansive right to counsel guaranteed by Florida law. Thus, I would read the supreme court’s opinion as requiring a defendant to aver that the misdemeanor offense was punishable by more than six months’ imprisonment or subjected the defendant to actual imprisonment only in those circumstances when the defendant is relying on deprivation of the federal constitutional right to counsel; an averment showing the right to counsel under state law, i.e., a risk of imprisonment for any length of time in the absence of the certificate, is all that is required in those instances when the defendant asserts a deprivation of his right to counsel under Florida law. To do otherwise would treat the supreme court’s opinion as fashioning a more restrictive state standard governing the right to counsel than is currently provided under Florida law.
With these qualifying comments, I concur in the court’s opinion on remand.
. The emphasized language was added in 1980 by an amendment adopted by the legislature shortly after the Supreme Court's decision in Baldosar was published. Ch. 80-376, § 2, Laws of Florida.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.