Can a lawyer help get your loved one out of prison?
When a direct appeal is denied with the Florida District Court after a plea or a trial, the next step is to seek a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel. This is permitted under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. There is a time limit of 2 years to file your Motion for Postconviction Relief in Florida, also called a Motion to Vacate Judgment and Sentence. However, in order to preserve future rights to seek relief in federal court for a Petition of Habeas Corpus, there is shorter time limit of one year. Thus, the Florida motion is best filed in the first year after the direct appeal is denied.
Finding a lawyer right when your direct appeal is denied is important. If the time limit has passed for the motion to be filed, there are some limited exceptions to the time limit about which a knowledgeable lawyer can provide advice.
A Motion for Postconviction Relief under Florida Rule 3.850 can allege many types of grounds for relief based on the trial lawyer's failures, and even some failures of the prosecutor. The issues in the motion should be connected to violations of the Constitutions in Florida as well as the United States Constitutions in order to best preserve future federal issues.
A successful claim for ineffective assistance of counsel must show that the trial outcome would have been different if the trial lawyer would have provided effective representation.
Mattie Fore has handled postconviction cases in multiple Florida trial courts, including Palm Beach County, Broward County, Martin County, Okeechobee County, and Seminole County.
Ineffective assistance of counsel can be shown in multiple ways, including:
- Failing to cross examine a witness effectively
- Failing to file a pretrial motion to suppress or a motion to dismiss
- Failing to bring out the prior criminal convictions of a State witness for the jury
- Failing to tell the client about a plea offer extended by the State
- Failing to call a defense witness at trial
- Failing to object to improper testimony by a State witness
- Failing to move for a mistrial
- Failing to provide proper advise to the client about plea consequences
- Failing to investigate the case pretrial
Preparing an effective Motion for Postconviction Relief requires a high degree of skill. These motions require a keen understanding of the law as well as a thorough knowledge of how jury trials should be prepared and conducted by a defense lawyer.
Mattie Fore is an experienced trial lawyer and an experienced postconviction lawyer.