Ladonna Florence, Appellant, v. State of Florida, Appellee. (2025)

Appellant, Ladonna Florence, seeks review of an order denying her motion for postconviction relief filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 as time-barred. Florence was convicted of armed robbery and burglary with an assault or battery, as a principal, and sentenced to an extensive prison term. This court affirmed her convictions and sentences in a citation opinion in 2021. See Florence v. State, 317 So. 3d 242 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021). On November 18, 2024, Florence filed her motion for postconviction relief alleging ineffective assistance of counsel and certain circumstances, including violations of the Prison Rape Elimination Act and her declining mental health, should be considered in furtherance of mitigating her sentence.¹ See 34 U.S.C. §§ 30301–30309. On appeal, Florence contends her declining mental condition rendered her incompetent thereby satisfying the newly discovered exception to the two-year bar. See Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.850(b)(1). We note that the latter claim was not raised below, and the record is devoid of any finding of incompetency; and to the extent Florence is seeking conditional medical release, we impute no error to the decision by the trial court. See Seme v. State, 327 So. 3d 383, 385–86 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021) (affirming denial of habeas corpus based on failure to establish exception to two-year time bar). Our decision is without prejudice to pursuing relief under section 947.149, Florida Statutes (2025). See Bennett v. State, 699 So. 2d 840, 841 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997).

Affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

1.   Florence included a number of lower court cases in her submission; but only the prosecution in F17-03115C, a consolidated case, yielded convictions.

MILLER, J.