QUANNAH BOWERS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 2003-11-05
Nos. 4D03-2086, 4D03-2362, 4D03-2363, 4D03-2364
GUNTHER, STEVENSON and MAY, JJ., concur.
862 So. 2d 772 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2003) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Quannah Bowers appealed the summary denial of his motion for post-conviction relief, challenging his guilty pleas on grounds that counsel affirmatively misadvised him about his ability to withdraw his plea if a downward departure motion was denied. The Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed and remanded, finding that the claim was not conclusively refuted by the record and warranted an evidentiary hearing.


Holding

The court reversed and remanded because Bowers's claim that counsel promised he could withdraw his plea was not conclusively refuted by the record, as the plea colloquy and forms were silent on this specific issue. The court found that affirmative misadvice about a defendant's ability to withdraw a plea can constitute a legally sufficient claim of ineffective assistance of counsel warranting an evidentiary hearing.


Headnotes

[1] A claim of affirmative misadvice from counsel can be an appropriate basis for postconviction relief.

[2] A trial court's attachments to an order denying postconviction relief must refute the defendant's claims to warrant summary denial.

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Key Quotes

“The plea colloquy and forms, however, do not conclusively refute Bowers's claim he would not have entered his pleas absent counsel's affirmative misadvice that Bowers could withdraw his plea if the court denied the motion for downward departure.”

Establishes that the trial court's reliance on the plea colloquy was insufficient to summarily deny the motion because the colloquy did not address the specific claim about withdrawal rights.

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Facts & Procedural History

Bowers pled guilty to numerous counts in an open plea to the court. He claimed that his counsel affirmatively misadvised him that he would receive no …

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Quannah Bowers appeals the summary denial of his motion for post-conviction relief. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

Bowers pled guilty to numerous counts in an open plea to the court. In his post-conviction motion, Bowers sought to withdraw his pleas arguing they were not intelligently and voluntarily entered. Bowers alleged counsel affirmatively misadvised him that he would receive no more than 82 months in prison. Further, counsel allegedly told Bowers he would move for a downward departure, in order to obtain the “promised” sentence, and that Bowers could “take [his] pleas back” if the court denied the motion for downward departure. Bowers’s post-conviction motion also alleged he received an illegal sentence.

The trial court adopted and attached the state’s response to the order summarily denying the post-conviction motion. Attached to the order are a copy of the written plea form and a transcript of the plea colloquy in which Bowers affirmed he was not promised any result in return for the guilty pleas. The record also showed Bowers was made aware he faced a maximum penalty of a hundred years in prison with a minimum of ten years. Thus, the record attachments conclusively refuted the claim Bowers’s pleas were not intelligently or voluntarily entered based on counsel’s “promise” of a certain sentence.

The plea colloquy and forms, however, do not conclusively refute Bowers’s claim he would not have entered his pleas absent counsel’s affirmative misadvice that Bowers could withdraw his plea if the court denied the motion for downward departure. See State v. Leroux, 689 So. 2d 235 (Fla.1996)(holding general question about whether any promises were made concerning the sentence that would be imposed did not refute the claim that counsel promised early release due to gain time).

The Supreme Court of Florida noted in Leroux, “[T]here may also be a difference between a ‘promise’ as commonly understood, and an attorney’s expert advice to his client.... Supplying such advice is not necessarily a promise of an outcome.” Id. at 237. See also Brana v. State, 830 So. 2d 942 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002)(finding when appellant’s attorney told him the sentences would be concurrent, appellant could have reasonably understood that as a statement of law, not a promise or a representation given to induce the plea). In this case, the attorney’s statement regarding Bowers’s ability to later withdraw his plea could reasonably be understood as a statement of law and not a promise about a result.

Affirmative misadvice about a defendant’s ability to withdraw a plea can constitute a legally sufficient claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. See Weaver v. State, 845 So. 2d 280 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003)(finding claim that counsel promised the defendant would have the absolute right to withdraw his plea before sentencing was not conclusively refuted by the record where colloquy was silent on this point). As Bowers’s claim is sufficient and not conclusively refuted by the record, we remand for an evidentiary hearing on this issue. McLin v. State, 827 So. 2d 948 (Fla. 2002); Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.850.

In response to Bowers’s claims of an illegal sentence, the state acknowledged that the sentencing order on count three of case number 00-19384CF10B must be corrected to reflect one year in prison to run consecutively to all other counts. The record in this case does not reflect whether this correction to the written sentence ever occurred. On remand, we direct the trial court to correct the written sentencing order accordingly.

GUNTHER, STEVENSON and MAY, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Garcia v. State, 907 So. 2d 607 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005)
    …ng reduction of his federal sentence and the instruction to stand mute regarding the federal plea agreement were not refuted by either the plea colloquy or the record, entitling him to an evidentiary hearing on the issue. See, e.g., Bowers v. State, 862 So. 2d 772, 773-74 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003)(reversing the summary denial of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim based on affirmative mis- [*609] advice of trial counsel, and remanding for an evidentiary hearing, because the plea colloquy did not conclusively…
  • Aurea Santos v. State, 156 So. 3d 586 (Fla. 3d DCA 2015)
    …onduct an evidentiary hearing. See, e.g., State v. Leroux, 689 So. 2d 235, 237-38 (Fla.1996) (reversing for evidentia-ry hearing because plea colloquy and record did not conclusively refute defendant’s post-conviction relief claim); Bowers v. State, 862 So. 2d 772, 773-74 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003) (same); Fisher v. State, 824 So. 2d 1050, 1051-52 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002) (same); Lewis v. State, 795 So. 2d 1061, 1061-62 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001) (same); Rensoli v. State, 718 So. 2d 1278, 1279 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998) (same); Kit v. S…

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