THE STATE OF FLORIDA EX REL. MILTON SIMONDS, RELATOR,
v.
THE HONORABLE W. TROY HALL, JR., AS JUDGE OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE FIFTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR LAKE COUNTY, FLORIDA, RESPONDENT

Fla. 2d DCA | 1976-02-13
No. 75-1621
HOBSON, A. C. J., and GRIMES and SCHEB, JJ., concur.
326 So. 2d 443 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1976) Positive Treatment
Cited by 8 cases

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Holding

A defendant seeking appellate relief is not continuously available for trial, and the speedy trial period does not run while such relief is pending.


Headnotes

[1] A petition for prohibition concerning a speedy trial question may be decided even if the case has not yet been set for trial, provided the defendant's motion for discharg…

[2] A person to be tried again must be brought to trial within ninety days from the mandate of the appellate court, unless an automatic stay is in effect.

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Facts & Procedural History

Relator was convicted, appealed, and remanded for a new trial. The state petitioned for certiorari, and relator cross-petitioned, claiming the first t…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

This court previously denied this petition for prohibition because the case had not been set for trial. The petition for rehearing filed by relator has persuaded us that the failure to set the case for trial does not prevent this court from deciding the speedy trial question presented by this petition for prohibition after relator’s motion for discharge by the trial court has been denied.

Relator was convicted of rape, kidnapping, robbery, and entering without breaking with intent to commit a felony, and appealed to this court, raising several points on appeal. This court reversed on one point relating to the admissibility of a psychiatrist’s testimony as to relator’s sanity at the time of the crimes, and remanded for a new trial, finding the other points without merit.1 Our mandate issued on January 7, 1975. The state timely petitioned for certiorari to the Florida Supreme Court, but its application was filed after the fifteen day automatic stay provision of FAR 4.5c(6). Simonds cross-petitioned for certiorari, claiming the first trial was untimely and that he should be discharged rather than retried. The state later moved for a stay in the Supreme Court which was denied. The Supreme Court denied the petition and cross-petition on July 17, 1975. State v. Simonds, Fla. 1975, 316 So. 2d 293.

On July 18, 1975, the state petitioned in the trial court for a sixty day extension within which to bring Simonds for trial and for an order to return him from prison for trial. Simonds, however, contended that the ninety day speedy trial time set forth in RCrP 3.191(g) had begun to run on January 7, 1975, .and the state was barred from retrial. Accordingly, Simonds opposed the petition to order him returned for trial and also moved for discharge.

Simonds’ arguments evidently persuaded the trial court, which denied the state’s motions for extension and for order returning defendant to trial on September 11, 1975. Simonds’ motion for discharge, however, was not ruled on at that time but was ultimately denied by another circuit judge on October 9, 1975. Defendant sought prohibition in this court on November 13, 1975, and we issued a rule to show cause on November 17,1975.

RCrP 3.191(g) provides'that a person who is to be tried again shall be brought to trial within ninety days from the mandate of the appellate court. Obviously, relator was not tried within ninety days of this court’s mandate on January 7, 1975. Had the state taken certiorari to the Florida Supreme Court within fifteen days, an automatic stay would have issued,2 but this was not the case. We are faced with the question, then, of the effect of Si-monds’ cross-petition for certiorari in the Florida Supreme Court. Obviously, if cross-petitioner had prevailed in the Supreme Court, any retrial would have been void. As far as relator was concerned, the appellate proceedings begun by his appeal to this court had not terminated. To require the state to proceed to a new trial while relator was contesting the very validity of such new trial in the appellate courts would be to give the provisions of the speedy trial rule an interpretation beyond the purpose of its enactment.3 We hold here that while relator was affirmatively seeking relief in the Supreme Court, he was not continuously available for trial within the meaning of RCrP 3.191(a)(1).4

When the Supreme Court denied relator’s cross-petition for certiorari on July 17, 1975, the ninety day provision of RCrP 3.191(g) became applicable. The state promptly moved to set the case down for trial well within ninety days from the Supreme Court mandate and sought to have the defendant returned for such trial. That the case was not ultimately tried within ninety days from the Supreme Court mandate was in large part due to the opposition of relator who contended that the speedy trial rule had already run. Relator was still not ready for trial within the contemplation of the speedy trial rule.5

Thus, the time for trial had not run by the time this court entered its rule nisi on this suggestion on November 17, 1975. The suggestion for writ of prohibition must be, and is hereby, denied and the rule previously issued is discharged. In view of the length of time that has expired from relator’s first trial, not all of which may be entirely attributable to relator, the trial court shall set relator’s new trial within thirty days of the date this opinion becomes final.

HOBSON, A. C. J., and GRIMES and SCHEB, JJ., concur. . Simonds v. State, Fla.App.2d, 1974, 304 So. 2d 525.

. See FAR 4.5c (6).

. We hereby recede from any dicta to the contrary in Esperti v. State, Fla.App.2d, 1973, 276 So. 2d 58.

. Rubiera v. Dade County ex rel. Benitez, Fla.1974, 305 So. 2d 161.

. See RCrP 3.191(a)(1); RCrP 3.191(d) (2) (iv) ; RCrP 3.191(e).


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Citator

Cited By

  • Tucker v. State, 357 So. 2d 719 (Fla. 1978)
    …the theory that Tucker necessitated the state’s appeal by his original motion to dismiss so that the delay should be attributed to him, relying on Rubiera v. Dade County ex rel. Benitez, 305 So. 2d 161 (Fla.1974), and State ex rel. Simonds v. Hall, 326 So. 2d 443 (Fla.2d DCA 1976), among other decisions. For this proposition the state relies on language from State v. Glidewell, 311 So. 2d 126 (Fla.2d DCA 1975), to the effect that where the defendant prevailed on a motion to dismiss and the trial court errone…
  • …nds of the clock again began to turn. No further extension order having intervened, the 90-day period for trial allowed by the court’s January 4 order expired June 27, 1977, 35 days after May 23. The state relies upon State ex rel. Simonds v. Hall, 326 So. 2d 443 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1976). Following Simonds’ conviction of several crimes, he appealed and the appellate court reversed. The state petitioned for certiorari to the Supreme Court after the 15 day automatic stay period expired. Simonds cross-petitioned. Ce…
  • Eire v. The Honorable Frank N. Kaney, 393 So. 2d 649 (Fla. 5th DCA 1981)
    …261 So. 2d 847 (Fla. 1st DCA), cert. denied 267 So. 2d 82 (Fla.1972). It would be unreasonable and uneconomic to require the state to proceed to try a case it could well be prohibited from trying. As the court said in State ex rel. Simonds v. Hall, 326 So. 2d 443 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976): To require the state to proceed to a new trial while relator was contesting the [*651] very validity of such new trial in the appellate courts would be to give the provision of the speedy trial rule an interpretation beyond the…

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