Harold Lee Harvey Jr. v. State of Florida
Harold Lee Harvey Jr. v. State of Florida
Opinion
Harold Lee Harvey, Jr., appeals the summary denial of his successive postconviction motion to vacate his sentences of death under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. Because we find that the record conclusively demonstrates that Harvey is not entitled to relief, we find that the postconviction court properly summarily denied Harvey's motion.
Harvey was convicted in 1986 for the murders of Ruby and William Boyd. His crimes are detailed in
Harvey v. State
,
A postconviction court's decision on whether to grant an evidentiary hearing on a postconviction motion is a pure question of law, reviewed de novo.
Mann v. State
,
Harvey's motion was filed December 20, 2016. Harvey, who had never before raised an intellectual disability claim, argues that his claim was timely because he filed two months after this Court decided
Walls v. State
,
Harvey also contends that he is eligible for
Hurst
relief. This Court has repeatedly held that
Hurst
relief does not extend to cases final before the United States Supreme Court decided
Ring v. Arizona
,
Based on the foregoing, we affirm the postconviction court's summary denial of Harvey's motion.
It is so ordered.
LEWIS, QUINCE, POLSTON, LABARGA, and LAWSON, JJ., concur.
CANADY, C.J., concurs in result.
PARIENTE, J., concurs in result with an opinion.
PARIENTE, J., concurring in result.
I agree that Harvey is not entitled to relief on his intellectual disability claim because he "failed to raise a timely ... claim under
Atkins v. Virginia
,
Applying
Hurst
to Harvey's case, the jury's nonunanimous recommendations for death by votes of eleven to one indicate that the
Hurst
error is not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
Harvey v. State
,
[D]ue to counsel's blatant neglect in heeding the psychologist's advice, none of this powerful mitigating evidence was ever investigated, developed, or presented . As our death penalty jurisprudence makes clear, counsel's duty is to thoroughly investigate first, and then evaluate in order to develop a sound defense strategy. We have a clear breach of counsel's duty here and substantial prejudice as a result. In the face of an almost apologetic case for mitigation, the jury's recommendation for death was virtually a certainty.
Harvey
,
I would hold that we cannot have confidence in the outcome of proceedings so infected by trial counsel's neglect and ineffectiveness. While counsel's neglect may ultimately have made no difference in the establishment of his guilt, the record in this case clearly establishes that the adversarial testing mandated by Strickland did not take place in the penalty phase proceedings of this case. We should remand for a new penalty phase, so that this essential adversarial testing can take place before a reasoned and informed judgment is rendered on life or death.
Accordingly, I would apply Hurst to Harvey's case, vacate Harvey's sentences of death, and remand for a new penalty phase.
This is true despite the fact that, in an opinion that never became final, we briefly vacated Harvey's convictions and remanded for a new trial in
Harvey v. State
, 28 Fla. L. Weekly S513, S513-15 (Fla. July 3, 2003) (citing
Nixon v. Singletary
,
Hurst v. State
(
Hurst
),
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Harold Lee HARVEY, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
- Cited By
- 7 cases
- Status
- Published