STATE OF FLORIDA, PETITIONER,
v.
KURT VAN BRYANT, RESPONDENT
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The state does not have the burden of proof regarding pardons or set-aside convictions for habitual offender sentencing; these are affirmative defenses for the defendant to raise.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal certified a question regarding the state's burden of proof for habitual felony offender sentencing, specifically w…
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SHAW, Justice.
We have for review Van Bryant v. State, 602 So. 2d 582 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992), wherein the court certified the following question:
Does the holding in Eutsey v. State, 388 So. 2d 219 (Fla.1980), that the state has no burden of proof as to whether the convictions necessary for habitual felony offender sentencing have been pardoned or set aside, in that they are “affirmative defenses available to [a defendant],” Eutsey at 226, relieve the trial court of its statutory obligation to make findings regarding those factors, if the defendant does not affirmatively raise, as a defense, that the qualifying convictions provided by the state have been pardoned or set aside?
Van Bryant, 602 So. 2d at 583. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla.Const. We answered this question in the negative in State v. Rucker, 613 So. 2d 460 (Fla. 1993), but held that harmless error analysis may be applied on appeal. We quash the decision of the district court in Van Bryant and remand for proceedings consistent with Rucker, which applies to both habitual felony offenders and habitual violent felony offenders.
It is so ordered.
BARKETT, C.J., and OVERTON, McDonald, GRIMES, KOGAN and HARDING, JJ., concur.
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Spriggs v. State, 615 So. 2d 828 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993)…, sentencing a juvenile as an adult, or a guidelines departure sentence — grows out of statutory language in the penalty provision adopted by the legislature. 546 So. 2d at 728-29. In Van Bryant v. State, 602 So. 2d 582 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992), quashed, 613 So. 2d 474 (Fla.1993),1 we ourselves took these decisions one step further and required record findings even where a defendant had made no suggestion or claim of pardon or a. vacation of the judgment of conviction, relying on the First District’s decision to t…
Authorities Cited
- State v. Rucker, 613 So. 2d 460 (Fla. 1993)
- van Bryant v. State, 602 So. 2d 582 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992)