JULIA BROWN BROOKS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Julia Brown Brooks appeals her sentencing for grand theft, challenging a departure sentence imposed partly to protect the public from AIDS transmission. The court reversed, holding that the defendant's medical condition is unrelated to the crime and cannot justify a sentencing departure.
The court held that the defendant's AIDS diagnosis is an improper reason for departure because the disease has no relation to the crime of conviction and the sentencing process is not the appropriate vehicle for addressing public health concerns unrelated to the offense.
[1] A sentencing court may not depart from recommended guidelines when the reason for departure is unrelated to the crime for which the defendant is being sentenced.
[2] A defendant's medical condition, unrelated to the offense of conviction, is an improper basis for a departure sentence.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“The defendant's disease has absolutely nothing to do with the crime for which she was convicted and sentenced.”
The court's holding that AIDS diagnosis cannot justify a sentencing departure
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceBrooks was convicted of grand theft. The trial court imposed a split sentence: thirty months' incarceration followed by twenty-four months' community …
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COWART, Judge.
The recommended guidelines sentence on defendant’s grand theft conviction was community control or twelve to thirty months’ incarceration. She was given a split sentence which, in effect, sentenced her to thirty months’ incarceration and twenty-four months’ community control. This was a departure sentence under Han-key v. State, 505 So. 2d 701 (Fla. 5th DCA), rev. denied, 515 So. 2d 230 (Fla.1987).1 The trial court gave the following reason for departure:
At the sentencing hearing it was conclusively shown that the defendant suffers from the usually fatal and sexually transmittable disease known as AIDS. The defendant has a long history of prostitution and related charges.
The sentence imposed reflects a guidelines period of imprisonment, which the defendant richly deserves considering her record, and a period of twenty-four months’ community control to be followed by probation. Community control was selected in order to afford the defendant maximum supervision in order to protect the public from the spread of the disease with which the defendant is afflicted.
We find this to be an improper reason for departure. The defendant's disease has absolutely nothing to do with the crime for which she was convicted and sentenced. While obviously the trial judge was concerned with protecting the public from the spread of AIDS, the sentencing process as to an unrelated crime is an improper vehicle to effectuate such concern. The departure sentence is reversed and remanded for the imposition of a guidelines sentence. Shull v. Dugger, 515 So. 2d 748 (Fla.1987).2
SENTENCE VACATED; CAUSE REMANDED.
ORFINGER and COBB, JJ., concur. . See also Bodine v. State, 517 So. 2d 782 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988); Avera v. State, 512 So. 2d 215 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987); VanKooten v. State, 512 So. 2d 214 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987).
. We reject the defendant's contentions that the trial court imposed $225 in costs without giving her notice and opportunity to object and without making an inquiry into her ability to pay. See Reynolds v. State, 516 So. 2d 1094 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987); Jones v. State, 513 So. 2d 732 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987).
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Shull v. Dugger, 515 So. 2d 748 (Fla. 1987)
- Hankey v. State, 505 So. 2d 701 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987)
- Dep't of Health & Rehabilitative Servs. v. State, 516 So. 2d 1094 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987)
- Isiah Bellinger v. State, 513 So. 2d 732 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)
- Avera v. State, 512 So. 2d 215 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987)
- State v. Demas, 512 So. 2d 214 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)
- VanKOOTEN v. State, 512 So. 2d 214 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987)
- Bodine v. State, 517 So. 2d 782 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988)