James Robertson, Appellant v. State of Florida, Appellee — Canady, J., Dissenting

Summary

Justice Canady dissented from the refusal to allow Robertson, who was sentenced to death, to waive his direct appeal. The dissent reasoned that a competent capital defendant retains the authority to decide whether to appeal and that neither the Florida Constitution, the death-penalty statute, nor federal death-penalty jurisprudence makes the appeal nonwaivable. Justice Canady would have remanded for a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary waiver inquiry and dismissed the appeal if waiver were established. Justice Pariente, concurring, defended mandatory adversarial appellate briefing and rejected the asserted ethical and personal-autonomy objections.