Background
Khadafy Kareem Mullens petitioned for a belated appeal seeking review of a February 4, 2026 circuit-court order. The underlying litigation concerns Mullens’s death sentence and his claim that intellectual disability bars his execution.
Mullens had previously raised an intellectual-disability claim in a Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851 postconviction motion. The postconviction court held an evidentiary hearing and found that Mullens presented a persuasive case of intellectual disability, but deferred a dispositive ruling because it had vacated his death sentence on another ground and anticipated a new penalty-phase trial. The Florida Supreme Court later reversed that vacatur in State v. Mullens, reinstating the death sentence.
The Court’s Holding
The Florida Supreme Court granted Mullens’s petition for belated appeal. It directed that a new case, Khadafy Kareem Mullens v. State of Florida, No. SC2026-1350, be opened as a notice of appeal seeking review of the February 4, 2026 circuit-court order, and it closed this case.
Justice Tanenbaum specially concurred. He concluded that the court lacks jurisdiction to review an order denying an unauthorized Rule 3.203(c) motion after a death sentence has become final, but agreed that the belated appeal should proceed if treated as an appeal from the denial of Mullens’s renewed Rule 3.851 intellectual-disability claim attacking his death sentence.
Key Takeaways
- The court granted a belated appeal and transferred it into newly created Case No. SC2026-1350.
- The order under review is the circuit court’s February 4, 2026 order.
- Justice Tanenbaum distinguished between an unauthorized post-sentence Rule 3.203 motion and an appealable Rule 3.851 collateral claim.
Why It Matters
The order permits appellate review to proceed despite the appeal’s untimeliness, while leaving the merits for the new appeal. Justice Tanenbaum’s concurrence underscores a jurisdictional distinction in Florida capital postconviction litigation: an intellectual-disability claim challenging a final death sentence must proceed through the proper collateral-review vehicle.