DAVID KEVIN KISER, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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A defendant's affirmative selection, not a knowing and intelligent election, is sufficient for sentencing under guidelines for offenses committed before the rule's effective date. Departure from guidelines based on a defendant's criminal record and unamenability to rehabilitation is permissible.
[1] Sentencing under the guidelines requires affirmative selection by the defendant, not necessarily a knowing and intelligent election, for offenses committed prior to the r…
[2] A trial court may depart from recommended sentencing guidelines when there are clear and convincing reasons to aggravate or mitigate the sentence.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAppellant was convicted of burglary and sentenced above the recommended guideline sentence. The trial court departed from the guidelines, citing the a…
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WIGGINTON, Judge.
This appeal is from a sentence imposed by the trial court pursuant to the sentencing guidelines, rule 3.701, Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure. See In re Rules of Criminal Procedure (Sentencing Guidelines), 439 So. 2d 848 (Fla.1983). Appellant argues that the sentence was improperly imposed as he had not made a “knowing and intelligent” election to be sentenced under the guidelines, and because the trial court relied on improper factors to depart from the guidelines. We affirm.
Appellant’s first argument must fail in light of our very recent decision in Moore v. State, 455 So. 2d 535 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984), in which we rejected an identical contention, holding that a defendant’s “affirmative selection” and not his “knowing and intelligent election” is all that is necessary to be sentenced pursuant to the guidelines when the offense was committed prior to the effective date of the rule. See also In re Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Appellant’s second contention is similarly without merit. Appellant was adjudicated guilty of burglary of a dwelling, which carried with it a recommended sentence of three years under the guidelines. However, the trial court departed from the guidelines and sentenced appellant, over objection, to ten years in state prison. The court’s reasons for doing so were as follow:
Mr. Kiser, this sentence has been imposed outside the sentencing guidelines. It has been imposed because of your total disregard for the rights of others, particularly the property rights of others. Your long criminal record since 1973 indicates that you do have such a total disregard for the rights of others. You were in an extremely dangerous position when you broke into the house on the beach, both for yourself and for the officer that arrested you [Appellant was armed with a kitchen knife].
You show that you have continued the life of crime and I am led to believe from your prior record that there is absolutely no hope to rehabilitate you.
I have for this reason gone outside the sentencing guidelines. I have refused to go outside the sentencing guidelines in a large majority of cases because I think it is my duty to follow the sentencing guidelines but that now is the law of the State of Florida. But I have an equal duty to stop people, like you, who just continue to violate the law and have no hope of making yourself a productive citizen.
For that reason I’ve gone outside the guidelines. The record will reflect that he has affirmatively chosen the guidelines. That his sentence would have been considerably less than the ten years imposed and he has a right to appeal on that issue. That right to appeal also extends for thirty days.
Appellant argues that the trial court’s reasons were premised primarily on appellant’s prior record, which was already taken into account in computing the recommended sentence of three years, and were therefore improper. Again, we must disagree.
Rule 3.701d.ll authorizes departure from the presumptive sentence where there are “clear and convincing reasons to warrant aggravating or mitigating the sentence.” The only condition imposed by this rule as it existed at the time of appellant’s sentencing was:
Reasons for deviating from the guidelines shall not include factors relating to either instant offense or prior arrests for which convictions have not been obtained.
Certainly, here, the trial court considered neither factors relating to the instant offense for which convictions had not been obtained, nor factors relating to prior arrests without convictions; instead, the court reviewed the circumstances of the present offense. We cannot say that in doing so, the trial court abused its discretion. Garcia v. State, 454 So. 2d 714 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Weems v. State, 451 So. 2d 1027 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984).
The court also considered appellant’s “pockmarked” record concluding that appellant was totally unamenable to rehabilitation. This consideration is not too unlike that given by the trial court in Swain v. State, 455 So. 2d 533 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984), in which we held that consideration given to the “timing” of the various offenses, i.e., the defendant’s establishing a pattern of committing new crimes within a short time after his release from any incarceration, was not precluded by the rule as a reason for departure from the recommended guideline sentence. See also Hendrix v. State, 450 So. 2d 298 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984); and Manning v. State, 452 So. 2d 136 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984).
AFFIRMED.
SMITH and WENTWORTH, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By (18 total)
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Davis v. State, 458 So. 2d 42 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984)…rt predicated on enhanced punishment for incorrigibles. If this be true, it cannot help but be a clear and convincing reason for aggravation, notwithstanding built-in provisions for prior criminal convictions on the score sheets. See Kiser v. State, 455 So. 2d 1071 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984) and Hendrix v. State, 455 So. 2d 449 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984). Appeals from Guideline departure, despite assurances to the contrary by those who advocated their adoption, are now in full spate.1 As we see it, the flood cannot subside…
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Mischler v. State, 458 So. 2d 37 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984)…(Fla. 4th DCA 1984). . Manning v. State, 452 So. 2d 136 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). . Higgs v. State, 455 So,2d 451 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984); Smith v. State, 454 So. 2d 90 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984); Young v. State, 455 So. 2d 551 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Kiser v. State, 455 So. 2d 1071 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Burke v. State, 456 So. 2d 1245 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984); Jean v. State, 455 So. 2d 1083 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984). . Williams v. State, 454 So. 2d 790 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984); Green v. State, 455 So. 2d 586 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984); Williams v. Sta…1 / 4
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Steiner v. State, 469 So. 2d 179 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985)…controversial in the light of the decisions that a departure may be based on the defendant’s prior criminal record even though it has been factored into the guidelines scorecard, Hendrix v. State, 455 So. 2d 449 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984); Kiser v. State, 455 So. 2d 1071 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Smith v. State, 454 So. 2d 90 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984), or specifically does not qualify for such an inclusion. Jean v. State, 455 So. 2d 1083 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984); Bogan v. State, 454 So. 2d 686 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); contra Albritton v.…
Previewing 3 of 18 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- In re Rules of Criminal Procedure (sentencing Guidelines), 439 So. 2d 848 (Fla. 1983)
- Onelia Garcia and Matthew Lee Wilson v. State, 454 So. 2d 714 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)
- Swain v. State, 455 So. 2d 533 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)
- Moore v. State, 455 So. 2d 535 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)
- Manning v. State, 452 So. 2d 136 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)
- Sherman v. State, 451 So. 2d 1027 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984)
- Love v. State, 450 So. 2d 298 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)