STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
GEORGE JOSEPH STELLA, APPELLEE
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Florida appeals the dismissal of a cocaine trafficking information against George Joseph Stella. The trial court dismissed based on a finding that the state unconstitutionally applied a cocaine trafficking statute by using a confidential informant (a convicted drug offender given lenient treatment) who was not Stella's accomplice. The appellate court reversed, holding that Stella lacks standing to challenge the constitutional application of the statute to a third party and cannot transform an entrapment defense into a constitutional challenge.
The trial court erred in dismissing the information. Stella lacks standing to challenge the constitutionality of section 893.135(3) as applied to Delannoy because the statute was not applied to Stella and he was not personally affected by Delannoy's receipt of lenient treatment. Stella cannot challenge how or why Delannoy came to be a confidential informant, as this does not adversely affect Stella's personal or property rights.
[1] A defendant cannot challenge the constitutionality of a statute or its application to another party when the statute does not adversely affect the defendant's personal or…
[2] A defendant may not challenge the constitutionality of a statute that was not applied to them.
Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Stella was not charged with violating section 893.135(3) (nor could he have been, for the subsection does not define a criminal offense). Accordingly, Stella cannot challenge the constitutionality of that section or of its application to Delannoy.”
Establishes that Stella lacks standing to challenge the statute because it was not applied to him and does not define an offense with which he could be charged.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceGeorge Joseph Stella was charged by information on December 31, 1981 with cocaine trafficking. The state's case relied partly on information supplied …
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GLICKSTEIN, Judge.
This is an appeal of the dismissal of a criminal information. We reverse and remand.
Defendant/appellee George Joseph Stella was charged by information on December 31, 1981 with trafficking in cocaine. Stella filed a motion to dismiss the information and a hearing on the motion was held October 14, 1983. The court relied on arguments and evidence presented by codefend-ant Michael Lee Dorman, which had been adopted by Stella. The court dismissed the information against Stella on the ground that the state had used a convicted drug statute violator, Rene Delannoy, as a confidential informant to bring about Stella’s arrest. Stella was not shown to have been Delannoy’s accomplice, accessory, cocon-spirator or principal in the incident that had led to Delannoy’s prosecution. Because of this fact, the trial court found that such use of the confidential informant to obtain more lenient treatment for Delannoy under section 893.135(3), Florida Statutes (1983), constituted unconstitutional application of that statute to Stella. The state timely appealed.
The issue is whether the trial court erred in holding that section 893.135(3), Florida Statutes, was unconstitutionally applied against a defendant who was arrested through information supplied by a confidential informant who was prosecuted for an offense in which the defendant was not involved. We conclude that it did.
Section 893.135(3) permits the prosecutor to seek reduction or suspension of the sentence of a violator of the trafficking portions of the statute who is of substantial assistance in the identification, arrest or conviction of his accomplices, accessories, co-conspirators or principals. Evidently here, Delannoy was so convicted and then obtained more lenient treatment by assisting in the obtaining of evidence against Stella and others. None of these, however, were Delannoy’s accomplices, accessories, co-conspirators or principals in the incident leading to Delannoy’s prosecution.
If, as defendant/appellee claims, section 893.135(3) was not intended to produce leniency for an offender like Delannoy who helped to obtain criminal process against people not involved with him in his offense, Delannoy may have obtained a bonanza to which he was not entitled. Whatever bene fit Delannoy received, the trial court erred in viewing such benefit as bearing in any way upon the information against Stella. Stella was not personally affected by De-lannoy’s receipt of more lenient treatment; and how or why Delannoy came to be a confidential informant also has no bearing on Stella’s case. If Stella could show entrapment, that would be a different matter; but here the court found section 893.135(3) unconstitutionally applied to Stella, when it was not applied to Stella at all, but to Delannoy.
Stella was not charged with violating section 893.135(3) (nor could he have been, for the sub-section does not define a criminal offense). Accordingly, Stella cannot challenge the constitutionality of that section or of its application to Delannoy. Stella has no personal stake in what happened to Delannoy and may not challenge those portions of a statute that do not adversely affect his personal or property rights. Sandstrom v. Leader, 370 So. 2d 3, 4 (Fla.1979), citing Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 93 S.Ct. 2908, 37 L.Ed.2d 830 (1973). It is for the foregoing reason that we reverse. No one has a due process right not to be caught for his criminal conduct merely because the person assisting the police is out of prison when properly he should be behind bars. As for the argument that Stella was attacking the application of section 893.135(3) to him, and not to Delannoy, this is patently not true. The section has, moreover, been found constitutional from a variety of angles in State v. Benitez, 395 So. 2d 514 (Fla.1981).
In sum, Stella appears to have transmogrified an entrapment defense into an attack on the constitutionality of the present application of the substantial assistance statute. If Stella can show he would not have committed the offense, that is, he lacked the predisposition to commit it, but was induced by Delannoy to commit it, let him. See, e.g., Morris v. State, 456 So. 2d 471 (Fla.3d DCA 1984). Dismissal of the information because of Delannoy’s supposedly improper release from punishment is not the correct procedure.
DOWNEY and DELL, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Lusby v. State, 507 So. 2d 611 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987)…he police make a new case. Thus it would not constitute substantial assistance under Fla. Stat. 893.-135(3), see Campbell v. State, 453 So. 2d 525 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984). However, that fact does not compel a discharge of the appellant. State v. Stella, 454 So. 2d 780 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984). . Appellant testified that Kuffer had told him he would "make him a rich man,” but appellant toid the confidential informant that he was only doing this to make "a little extra cash.”…
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State v. McQUEEN, 501 So. 2d 631 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986)…ve no standing to assert such an argument, as it is not their rights which would be adversely affected by failure to enforce the agreement, but rather those of the informant. Additionally, in addressing this very point, the court in State v. Stella, 454 So. 2d 780 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984), stated the following: No one has a due process right not to be caught for his criminal conduct merely because the person assisting the police is out of prison when properly he should be behind bars. Id., at 782. At the hearin…
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State v. Dorman, 456 So. 2d 936 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984)…PER CURIAM. We reverse on the authority of State v. Stella, 454 So. 2d 780 (Fla. 4th DCA, 1984). DOWNEY, GLICKSTEIN and DELL, JJ., concur.…
Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601 (U.S. 1973)
- State v. Benitez, 395 So. 2d 514 (Fla. 1981)
- Sandstrom v. Leader, 370 So. 2d 3 (Fla. 1979)
- Witley v. State, 456 So. 2d 471 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984)
- Morris v. State, 456 So. 2d 471 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984)