Patrick Glenn Ellingburg v. State of Florida
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
Date FiledMarch 19, 2021
Docket1D20-2392
StatusPublished
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Full Opinion
FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
STATE OF FLORIDA
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No. 1D20-2392
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PATRICK GLENN ELLINGBURG,
Petitioner,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Respondent.
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Petition Alleging Ineffective Assistance of Appellate Counsel—
Original Jurisdiction.
March 19, 2021
PER CURIAM.
Patrick Glenn Ellingburg petitions for relief from his
convictions and sentences for robbery with a firearm, grand theft,
and aggravated assault with a firearm. He asserts that counsel in
his direct appeal rendered ineffective assistance when he failed to
argue that the trial court should have excused two jurors on the
court’s own motion. We deny the petition on the merits.
Our standard of review for a claim for ineffective assistance of
appellate counsel mirrors the Strickland ∗ standard for claims of
ineffective assistance of trial counsel. See Wilson v. Wainwright,
474 So. 2d 1162, 1163 (Fla. 1985). To prevail on such a claim, a
“[p]etitioner must show 1) specific errors or omissions which show
that appellate counsel’s performance deviated from the norm or
fell outside the range of professionally acceptable performance and
2) the deficiency of that performance compromised the appellate
process to such a degree as to undermine the confidence in the
fairness and correctness of the appellate result.” Id. It is the
petitioner’s burden to allege specific, serious omissions by
appellate counsel about an issue “which is error affecting the
outcome, not simply harmless error.” See Knight v. State, 394 So.
2d 997, 1001 (Fla. 1981).
Ellingburg did not meet his burden here. His trial counsel did
not seek to strike the jurors that Ellingburg now alleges were
biased. Even so, Ellingburg does not allege that the trial court
fundamentally erred by not striking the two jurors on its own
motion. And even if he had, there was no fundamental error
because Ellingburg has not shown that the jury that served was
biased. See Jenkins v. State, 824 So. 2d 977, 981–82 (Fla. 4th DCA
2002); Pryear v. State, 243 So. 3d 479, 482–83 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018)
(explaining that trial counsel’s failure to object a juror is not
normally a basis for postconviction relief “because the prejudice
prong cannot be proven absent some indication that the jury that
actually served was biased”). And so, Ellingburg’s appellate
counsel was not ineffective for failing to raise issues that are
procedurally barred because they were not raised at trial and do
not present a question of fundamental error. See Downs v. Moore,
801 So. 2d 906, 910 (Fla. 2001). For these reasons, we deny the
petition on the merits.
DENIED.
ROWE, MAKAR, and OSTERHAUS, JJ., concur.
∗
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S. Ct. 2052
(1984).
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Not final until disposition of any timely and
authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
9.331.
_____________________________
Patrick Glenn Ellingburg, pro se, Petitioner.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Respondent.
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