Alston v. State

The Supreme Court withdrew the opinion issued on January 22, 2018, and substituted this opinion in its place, reviewing Pressley Bernard Alston’s appeal of the circuit court’s order denying Alston’s motion filed pursuant to Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.851 and Alston’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

Alston sought relief pursuant to the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016), and the Supreme Court’s decision on remand in Hurst v. State, 202 So. 3d 40 (Fla. 2016). The Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court’s denial of relief and denied Alston’s habeas petition, holding that Alston’s waiver of postconviction proceedings and counsel precluded him from claiming a right to relief under Hurst. Moreover, even if Alston’s postconviction waiver did not preclude him from raising a Hurst claim, Hurst would not apply retroactively to Alston’s sentence of death, which became final in 1999.