Richard Wallace Rhodes v. State of Florida

Summary

The court affirmed the denial of Rhodes’s successive postconviction motion, rejecting his claims that the State suppressed favorable evidence, presented or failed to correct false testimony, elicited statements through jailhouse agents in violation of the right to counsel, or presented newly discovered evidence warranting a new trial. The court upheld the postconviction court’s credibility findings and alternatively concluded that the alleged suppressed evidence was not material in light of the substantial evidence of guilt. The court also held that Rhodes’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel had not attached when the alleged questioning occurred and that his newly discovered evidence claim failed under the governing two-part test.