CHARLES ZULLA, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Appellant Zulla challenged his sentence for resisting an officer with violence, arguing he should receive credit for time spent in a California jail on a Florida detainer. The court held that properly documented jail time in foreign jurisdictions must be credited against Florida sentences under section 921.161(1), reversing prior case law to the contrary.
Where properly documented, credit for all time spent in foreign jails must be given against a Florida sentence. Section 921.161(1) requires courts to credit defendants for time spent in county jail before sentence, and this applies to time spent in out-of-state jails when properly documented with official verification.
[1] A court imposing a sentence shall allow a defendant credit for all time spent in the county jail before sentence, as provided by statute.
[2] A defendant is entitled to credit for time spent incarcerated in a foreign jail, provided that the incarceration was pursuant to a detainer from the sentencing jurisdicti…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“A sentence of imprisonment shall not begin to run before the date it is imposed but the court imposing a sentence shall allow a defendant credit for all of the time he spent in the county jail before sentence.”
The statutory basis for requiring jail time credit, which the court interpreted to apply to out-of-state jails when properly documented.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceZulla entered a nolo contendere plea to resisting an officer with violence and was sentenced to two years imprisonment. Before being returned to Flori…
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HOBSON, Judge.
Appellant entered a plea of nolo conten-dere to the charge of resisting an officer with violence. He was adjudicated guilty and sentenced to two years imprisonment. Appellant argues that the trial court erred in not giving him credit for time spent in the Solano County, California jail pursuant to a Florida detainer pending his return to Florida to answer this charge. We agree.
Section 921.161(1), Florida Statutes (1979) provides:
A sentence of imprisonment shall not begin to run before the date it is imposed but the court imposing a sentence shall allow a defendant credit for all of the time he spent in the county jail before sentence. The credit must be for a specified period of time and shall be provided for in the sentence. [Emphasis added.]
A review of Florida decisions indicates that only two districts have interpreted this section. The First District in Kurlin v. State, 302 So. 2d 147 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974) held that this statute is not applicable to periods of time incarcerated in other states. The Fourth District in Southard v. State, 363 So .2d 178 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978), considered the Kurlin decision, but declined to reach a conclusion for the following reasons:
Appellant has failed to demonstrate either in the trial court or before this court that he was, in fact, incarcerated in California pursuant to a Florida detainer. The record is void of any official reference to any incarceration in California, whether it be pursuant to a Florida detainer or California charges. It being the burden of the appellant to demonstrate error, we therefore find that he has failed to sustain the burden.
Sub judice, appellant has sustained his burden by supplementing the record with official verification of his incarceration in California pursuant to a Florida detainer. We choose not to follow the Kurlin decision and hold that where properly documented, credit for all time spent in foreign jails should be given. Justice Boyd wrote in Argersinger v. Hamlin, 236 So. 2d 442 (Fla.1970), “from the inside all jails look alike.”
We are aware that the lower court did not have benefit of some of the communications from Solano County, California when it heard the motion to reconsider the sentence. Accordingly, we affirm the conviction, but remand for reconsideration of sentence so that credit for time spent in California can be given.
SCHEB, C. J., and OTT, J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By (12 total)
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Kronz v. State, 462 So. 2d 450 (Fla. 1985)…view a decision of the First District Court of Appeal reported as Kronz v. State, 440 So. 2d 49 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983), in which the district court certified direct conflict with Rehfuss v. State, 432 So. 2d 639 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983), and Zulla v. State, 404 So. 2d 202 (Fla. 2d DCA [*451] 1981). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. Petitioner was arrested and held in South Carolina on a fugitive warrant for an escape from a Florida jail. He unsuccessfully fought extradition and eventually pleaded…
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Kronz v. State, 440 So. 2d 49 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983)…jail prior to sentencing, as applicable to periods of time a defendant is incarcerated in other states. Although we affirm the denial of defendant’s motion to correct sentence, relying on Kurlin, we certify that Kurlin conflicts with Zulla v. State, 404 So. 2d 202 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981), and Rehfuss v. State, 432 So. 2d 639 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982) on the issue of whether a defendant is entitled to credit on a Florida sentence for time incarcerated in an out-of-state jail pursuant to a Florida detainer or warrant. E…
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Osteen v. State, 406 So. 2d 1239 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981)…or correction of sentence. The or [*1240] der below gave credit only for time served in the Pinellas County jail. This court recently held that where properly documented, credit should be given for all time spent in foreign jails. Zulla, v. State, 404 So. 2d 202 (Fla.2d DCA 1981). Therefore, appellant was entitled to credit for all time spent in jail in Alabama while he was held on detainer for Florida. We remand to the trial court for resen-tencing, with instructions that if necessary, an evidentiary hea…
Previewing 3 of 12 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- State of Fla. ex rel. Jon Richard Argersinger v. Hamlin, 236 So. 2d 442 (Fla. 1970)
- Schubert v. State, 302 So. 2d 147 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974)
- Kurlin v. State, 302 So. 2d 147 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974)
- Nania v. Port Salerno Realty, Inc., 363 So. 2d 178 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978)