Smith v. State

Petitioners are two criminal defendants facing capital murder charges in Duval County, Florida. Via two separate petitions for writ of certiorari, the petitioners sought review of the denial of two motions filed by the Fourth Circuit Public Defender’s office, seeking to withdraw from each case on the basis of a conflict of interest. Throughout the course of this litigation, it became clear that the conflicts were related and the issues identical, and we consolidated these petitions for all purposes. We now write, via this consolidated opinion, to quash the trial court’s orders denying the…