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332 So. 2d 676

Docket No. 75-1392.

Blake v. State

Charles BLAKE, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Decided May 14, 1976.

Rehearing Denied June 22, 1976.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1976-05-14

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“Please, sir, I hope and pray you will find it in your heart to talk to Judge R. McIntosh to give me one more chance and put me on probation?”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 614 So. 2d 605 - Russell v. State

Relies on Ivey v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1976-05-14

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently September 2008

5 state decisions

201976198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and James R. Merola, Sp. Asst. Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

¶2Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Anthony Musto and C. Marie Bernard, Asst. Attys. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

¶3PER CURIAM.

¶4The only substantial question on this appeal from a judgment of guilt and sentence for possession and sale of a controlled substance concerns the use, on cross-examination of the defendant who had denied any involvement with the crime, of the following statement in a letter gratuitously written by Blake to a State's Attorney:

"Please, sir, I hope and pray you will find it in your heart to talk to Judge R. McIntosh to give me one more chance and put me on probation?"

¶5We conclude, as did the trial judge, that the statement was properly permitted to be used as a party admission and in impeachment of the defendant's testimony on direct examination. Ivey v. State,132 Fla. 36, 180 So. 368, 369 (1938). The letter was not privileged as a "plea discussion" under Rule 3.171, F.R.Cr.P., which provides in part that:

"(a) The Prosecuting Attorney is encouraged to discuss and agree on pleas which may be entered by a defendant. Such discussion and agreement must be *677 conducted with the defendant's counsel or, if the defendant is unrepresented, may be conducted with defendant.
*
"(d) Discussion and Agreement Not Admissible. If the defendant pleads not guilty, no mention of any prior proceedings hereunder [emphasis supplied] shall be admissible against him."

¶6It is apparent that the entirely unsolicited and self-initiated communication from the defendant was not part of a proceeding "under" or contemplated by the rule.

¶7AFFIRMED.

¶8WALDEN, C.J., CROSS, J., and SCHWARTZ, ALAN R., Associate Judge, concur.

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