Haygood v. State
Haygood v. State
Opinion of the Court
Roderick V. Haygood appeals the denial of his motion for post-conviction relief. In his motion, Haygood raised six claims, three of which were summarily denied. In one of the claims summarily denied, claim two, Haygood argued defense counsel rendered ineffective assistance for failing to object to that part of the prosecutor’s closing argument where the prosecutor said:
You notice that when defense counsel was addressing you, he never once disputed the fact that this stuff right here came from that man; not once. Because there is no disputing it.
Haygood argues that this comment may be understood as a comment on his failure to testify. In summarily denying relief on this ground, the trial court held that the statement was “not necessarily objectionable” and when read in context “was relatively minor.” The trial court did not attach a transcript of closing arguments to its order.
A defendant has the constitutional right to decline to testify against himself
Therefore, we reverse the summary denial of claim two and remand for the trial court to either attach records refuting it or to evaluate that portion of the claim at an evidentiary hearing. See Peede v. State, 748 So.2d 253, 257 (Fla. 1999) (“To uphold the trial court’s summary denial of claims raised in a 3.850 motion, the claims must be either facially invalid or conclusively refuted by the record.”).
AFFIRMED in part, REVERSED in part, and REMANDED.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.