JAMES REE, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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A Florida appellate court reversed a sentencing decision where the trial court departed from sentencing guidelines, finding that two of the four stated reasons for departure were invalid and that the written order explaining the departure was not provided contemporaneously with sentencing.
Two of the four reasons for departure were valid (psychological trauma to victims and commission of crimes within eight months of probation), but two were invalid (one conceded by the state and one unsupported by evidence). The sentence must be reversed and remanded for resentencing because the state failed to show the invalid reasons did not affect the sentence, and because the written order was not contemporaneous with sentencing pronouncement.
[1] A trial court's written statement of reasons for departing from sentencing guidelines must be contemporaneous with the pronouncement of sentence.
[2] A trial court may depart from sentencing guidelines based on the psychological and emotional trauma of victims when such trauma forms the basis for probation revocation.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“It was reversible error for the trial court to depart from the guidelines without providing a contemporaneous written statement of the reasons therefore at the time each sentence was pronounced.”
Establishes the primary reversible error—failure to provide written reasons contemporaneously with sentencing pronouncement
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceRee pleaded nolo contendere to burglary, possession of burglary tools, and criminal mischief, with adjudication withheld and two years' probation impo…
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PER CURIAM.
This case concerns the trial court’s departure from the sentencing guidelines.
Appellant pled nolo contendere to burglary, possession of burglary tools and criminal mischief. Adjudication was withheld and he was placed on two years’ probation. Eight months later, an affidavit of violation of probation was filed, charging appellant with violating his probation by committing sexual batteries upon two female children.
A probation revocation hearing was held, after which the trial court revoked appellant’s probation, adjudicated him guilty, and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment for burglary, five years’ imprisonment for possession of burglary tools, and six months’ imprisonment for criminal mischief, the sentences to run consecutively. The sentence was a six-cell departure from the sentencing guidelines. Five days after the sentencing hearing the trial judge signed a written order stating four reasons for his departure from the guidelines.
On appeal, appellant contends that all four reasons for departure were invalid. We conclude that the first reason (psychological and emotional trauma of the sexual battery victims) was valid, as constituting consideration of the circumstances forming the basis for the probation revocation. See Isgette v. State, 494 So. 2d 534 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986); Rodriguez v. State, 464 So. 2d 638 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985). The second reason (commission of crimes within eight months of being placed on two years’ probation) is also valid. See Spivey v. State, 481 So. 2d 100 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986). The state concedes, however, that the third reason was invalid; and although the fourth reason (trend toward criminality of increasing severity), could have been valid, Ballard v. State, 501 So. 2d 1285 (Fla. 4th DCA), rev. denied, 488 So. 2d 67 (Fla.1986), it was not sufficiently supported by the evidence. Since the state has not shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the absence of the two invalid reasons for departure would not have affected the sentence, we must reverse and remand for resentencing. See Albritton v. State, 476 So. 2d 158 (Fla. 1985).
Appellant also argues that the extent of the departure from the guidelines was excessive. Since we do not know to what degree the two invalid reasons for departure affected the sentence, however, a review of the extent of the departure at this time would be premature.
Appellant further contends that the sentence must be reversed because the trial court’s written order of departure was not contemporaneous with its pronouncement of sentence. We reluctantly agree. In State v. Oden, 478 So. 2d 51 (Fla.1985), the supreme court approved the first district’s holding that “[i]t was reversible error for the trial court to depart from the guidelines without providing a contemporaneous written statement of the reasons therefore at the time each sentence was pronounced.” (Emphasis added). See also Matthews v. State, 486 So. 2d 47 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986); Elkins v. State, 489 So. 2d 1222 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986).
We express agreement with Judge Sharp’s reasoning in her special concurrence in Elkins, however, and certify the following question to the supreme court:
MUST A TRIAL COURT PRODUCE WRITTEN REASONS FOR DEPARTURE FROM THE SENTENCING GUIDELINES AT THE SENTENCING HEARING?
REVERSED AND REMANDED FOR RESENTENCING.
WALDEN and GUNTHER, JJ., concur. HERSEY, C.J., concurs specially with opinion.
HERSEY, Chief Judge,
concurring specially.
The requirement which was not met in this case is embodied in that portion of rule 3.701 d.ll., Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, providing that any sentence outside the guidelines “must be accompanied by a written statement delineating the reasons for the departure.” For one person or thing to be accompanied by other persons or things requires that the former and the latter occupy substantially the same or adjacent space at approximately the same time.
In Oden v. State, 463 So. 2d 313, 314 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984), the court, in expressing this necessary relationship between sentencing and the publication of written reasons for departure, stated: “It was reversible error for the trial court to depart from the guidelines without providing a contemporaneous written statement of the reasons therefor at the time each sentence was pronounced. Jackson v. State, 454 So. 2d 691 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984).” The supreme court, in State v. Oden, 478 So. 2d 51 (Fla.1985), approved the decision of the district court and quoted but did not adopt the foregoing language. This has given rise to the question: when must the written statement be made available, the issue exemplified by such cases as Matthews v. State and Elkins v. State, supra. From both the practical and the logical points of view it is suggested that the answer ought to be that written reasons, supported by clear and convincing evidence made a matter of record at the sentencing hearing, should be filed and published with (at the same time as) the written sentencing document.
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Cited By (15 total)
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REE v. State, 565 So. 2d 1329 (Fla. 1990)…PER CURIAM. Upon petition for rehearing, we withdraw our prior opinion in this case and substitute the following as the opinion of the Court. We have for review Ree v. State, 512 So. 2d 1085 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987), based on express and direct conflict with Lambert v. State, 545 So. 2d 838 (Fla.1989). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. Although jurisdiction was granted based on conflict, the opinion below also certified th…1 / 2
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State v. Williams, 576 So. 2d 281 (Fla. 1991)…d by Ree. Williams, 559 So. 2d at 374. The quoted reference to Holmes v. State, 556 So. 2d 1224 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990), is not without significance. In Holmes, the Fourth District Court of Appeal wrote: We already “reluctantly” held in Ree v. State, 512 So. 2d 1085 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987), that the oral pronouncement and the written reasons must be said and produced at the same instant in time and that any delay (presumably as little as one hour) between the actual hearing and the written reasons would be unaccep…
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Lucious Williams v. State, 568 So. 2d 1276 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990)…well established rule. Although it may be argued that the broad language utilized in Ree prohibits the imposition of a departure sentence based on two or more violations of probation, it is clear from reading the opinion, together with Ree v. State, 512 So. 2d 1085 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987), that the question of a departure sentence based upon multiple violations of probation was not presented or ruled upon by the court. Although we find several of the fourteen reasons enumerated by the trial court as a basis for de…
Previewing 3 of 15 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited (12 total)
- City OF Atl. Beach v. Bull, 476 So. 2d 158 (Fla. 1985)
- Albritton v. State, 476 So. 2d 158 (Fla. 1985)
- Jackson v. State, 454 So. 2d 691 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)
- THE Florida BAR v. Winter, 478 So. 2d 51 (Fla. 1985)
- Oden v. State, 463 So. 2d 313 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)
- Spivey v. State, 481 So. 2d 100 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986)
- Ballard v. State, 501 So. 2d 1285 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986)
- Quilla Elkins v. State, 489 So. 2d 1222 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986)
- Heriberto Rodriguez v. State, 464 So. 2d 638 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985)
- Isgette v. State, 494 So. 2d 534 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986)