JUAN FERNANDEZ, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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A defendant appealed his consecutive fifteen and five-year sentences imposed after a probation violation hearing, arguing the sentences were retaliatory because they were harsher than the State's pre-hearing plea offer of three years. The Florida appellate court affirmed, holding that no presumption of unconstitutional vindictiveness arises absent evidence that the trial judge had a personal stake in the defendant accepting the plea offer.
The court held that no presumption of unconstitutional vindictiveness arises absent evidence that the trial judge had a personal stake in whether the defendant accepted or rejected the plea offer. Because nothing in the record indicated the judge was interested in having the defendant accept the offer such that rejection could be viewed as a rebuff, the harsher sentence does not require explanation or justification.
[1] A presumption of unconstitutional vindictiveness does not arise when a defendant receives a harsher sentence after rejecting a plea offer, absent evidence that the trial…
[2] A defendant who rejects a plea offer and receives a harsher sentence after trial may not complain of the sentence in the absence of evidence of vindictiveness.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“where, as here, there is nothing in the record to show that the trial court had a personal stake in whether the defendant accepted the plea offer, or rejected the offer and asserted his right to a hearing, no presumption of unconstitutional vindictiveness arises, and the harsher sentence needs no explaining”
Establishes the court's holding that a personal stake requirement must be met before vindictiveness presumption applies
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceFernandez was sentenced to consecutive terms of fifteen and five years after the trial court found he violated the conditions of his probation. The St…
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DANIEL S. PEARSON, Judge.
The trial court imposed fifteen and five-year consecutive sentences upon the defendant after finding that he violated the terms and conditions of his probation. The defendant’s sole point on appeal is that the severity of these sentences when compared to the State’s pre-hearing offer of a three-year sentence, which offer was expressly declared to be “appropriate” by the trial judge, raises a presumption that the severe sentences were unlawfully retaliatory and unjustly punished the defendant for having exercised his constitutional right to a probation violation hearing. The defendant contends further that this presumption has not been dissipated, as it must be under Fraley v. State, 426 So. 2d 983 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983), by an affirmative record showing that the harsher sentence was not im posed out of vindictiveness. The defendant asks that the case be remanded to the trial court with instructions to make record findings supportive of the harsher sentence or impose a sentence in conformity with the plea offer.
We affirm the sentences imposed. In the unique setting of Fraley, the trial judge himself made the plea offer and evinced a personal interest in the defendant’s acceptance of it, and it could thus be said that the defendant’s rejection of the offer might give rise to vindictiveness in the offeror.1 In the present case, although there is evidence that the trial judge would have likely approved a three-year plea bargain between the parties, had one been struck, there is nothing whatever to indicate that the trial judge was interested in having the defendant accept the plea offer so that a rejection of the offer could be viewed as a rebuff to the judge.
Therefore, where, as here, there is nothing in the record to show that the trial court had a personal stake in whether the defendant accepted the plea offer, or rejected the offer and asserted his right to a hearing, no presumption of unconstitutional vindictiveness arises, and the harsher sentence needs no explaining. Since in the absence of evidence of vindictiveness, a defendant who rejects a plea offer may not complain about receiving a harsher sentence after trial, see Miller v. State, 430 So. 2d 611 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983), the sentences must be
Affirmed.
. In Frazier, a/k/a Fraley v. State, 467 So. 2d 447 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985), the appeal after remand of Fraley v. State, 426 So. 2d 983, this court held that the trial judge’s explanation dissipated the presumption of vindictiveness and upheld Fra-ley’s sentence.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Williams v. State, 502 So. 2d 68 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)…ng. See Brunelle v. State, 456 So. 2d 1324, 1325 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984); Lane v. State, 430 So. 2d 989, 990 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983); Fitter v. State, 261 So. 2d 512 (Fla. 3d DCA 1972). Finally, we find no merit in the sentencing point. Fernandez v. State, 471 So. 2d 642 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985). Affirmed.…
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Hernandez v. State, 539 So. 2d 36 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989)…AM. Sergio Hernandez contends, and the state concedes, that the trial court erred in departing upwards from the presumptive sentencing guidelines range based upon Hernandez’s rejection of the trial court’s sentencing offer, see Fernandez v. State, 471 So. 2d 642 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985); Fraley v. State, 426 So. 2d 983 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983), rev. dismissed sub nom, Frazier v. State, 475 So. 2d 694 (Fla.1985), and the trial court’s erroneous finding of a continuing pattern of criminal conduct, see Gales v. State, 515…
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Lobue v. State, 578 So. 2d 473 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991)…. Affirmed. See and compare Garvin v. State, 567 So. 2d 556 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990); Johnson v. State, 564 So. 2d 1174 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990); Palmer v. State, 483 So. 2d 496 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986), rev. denied 494 So. 2d 1152 (Fla.1986); Fernandez v. State, 471 So. 2d 642 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985); Clark v. State, 378 So. 2d 1315 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980); Section 775.084(3), Florida Statutes (1989).…
Authorities Cited
- Fraley v. State, 426 So. 2d 983 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983)
- Frazier v. State, 467 So. 2d 447 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985)
- Miller v. State, 430 So. 2d 611 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983)