MARTIN KOPKO, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Kopko appeals his 1994 resentence on a lewd assault charge, arguing that changing his sentence from concurrent to consecutive to his life sentence violates the due process protections established in North Carolina v. Pearce. The court agrees and vacates the sentence for resentencing because the trial court provided no objective rationale for the harsher consecutive sentence.
The sentence on count II is vacated and remanded for resentencing because the change from a concurrent to a consecutive sentence violates North Carolina v. Pearce. The trial court failed to provide any objective information or identifiable conduct occurring after the original sentencing to justify the harsher consecutive sentence, and thus the record contains no rationale or reasons for the increased severity.
[1] Due process requires that a defendant be free from apprehension that exercising the right to appeal will result in vindictiveness if the appeal leads to resentencing.
[2] A more severe sentence may be imposed upon resentencing only when there is objective information concerning identifiable conduct on the part of the defendant occurring af…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“the due process clause of the 14th Amendment requires that vindictiveness against a defendant for having successfully attacked his first conviction or sentence must play no part in the sentence he receives upon resentencing”
Establishes the core principle from North Carolina v. Pearce protecting defendants from retaliatory sentencing increases on remand
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceKopko was initially sentenced in 1989 to a life sentence for sexual battery (count I) and a concurrent 15-year sentence for lewd assault on a child (c…
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W. SHARP, Judge.
Kopko brings a belated appeal from a sentence he received on August 12, 1994 for lewd assault on a child,1 after this court remanded this cause to the trial court for resentencing. Kopko v. State, 638 So. 2d 529 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994). Kopko was sentenced to one year in the county jail with credit for time served, consecutive to count I (a life sentence for sexual battery).2 Initially, in 1989 he had been sentenced to 15 years on count II, concurrent to the life sentence in count I. Kopko argues this sentence violates the dictates of North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969). We agree.
Kopko’s sentence on count II has had a long, tortious history. After the initial sentence in 1989, and appeals to the Fifth District Court of Appeal as well as the Florida Supreme Court, the cause was remanded for resentencing on count II in 1992, because of errors made in the scoresheet. See State v. Kopko, 596 So. 2d 669 (Fla.1992). Kopko was resentenced in 1993 to a 15 year suspended sentence conditioned on the successful completion of 15 years probation, to be served consecutive to the life sentence. This sentence was also reversed because it constituted a departure and no written reasons were filed. Kopko v. State, 638 So. 2d 529 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994). After remand for resentencing the third time, Kopko received the sentence he is now belatedly appealing.
Although factually complex, it is clear that the sentence for count II under consideration in this proceeding is consecutive to the life sentence he initially received where in the first sentencing proceeding, the sentence for count II was concurrent to the life sentence. No other consecutive sentence for count II was ever upheld by the appellate court.
The state argues that Kopko did not preserve this issue, citing section 924.051, Florida Statutes (Supp.1996). However, this statute took effect on July 1, 1996, almost two years after the 1994 resentencing; thus it is not applicable. See Larson v. State, 700 So. 2d 388 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997); Medberry v. State, 699 So. 2d 857, 858, n. 1 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997).
The state also argues that Kopko is barred from raising this sentencing error claim because he received a consecutive sentence on count II at the 1993 resentencing, and did not object to it at that time. That sentence, however, was quashed on other grounds. Kopko cannot be expected to preserve a sentencing error in 1993 that did not occur until 1994. See Middleton v. State, 689 So. 2d 304 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997).
In North Carolina v. Pearce, the United States Supreme Court explained that the due process clause of the 14th Amendment requires that vindictiveness against a defen-' dant for having successfully attacked his first conviction or sentence must play no part in the sentence he receives upon reeonviction and resentencing. The defendant must be free from apprehension of “retaliatory motivation” on the part of the resentencing judge for having successfully pursued his appeal.
Thus, if the defendant receives a harsher sentence on remand, the rationale and reasons therefor must be based on objective information concerning identifiable conduct on the part of the defendant which occurred after the time of the original sentencing. And the rationale and reasons must affirmatively appear in the record. See Gilliam v. State, 582 So. 2d 610 (Fla.1991). Courts have held that a change from concurrent to consecutive sentencing violates North Carolina v. Pearce. Gilliam (life sentence for sexual battery consecutive to death penalty for murder was more severe than concurrent life sentence imposed after first trial); Alfonso v. State, 561 So. 2d 1207 (Fla. 3d DCA), rev. denied, 576 So. 2d 284 (Fla.1990) (trial court’s resentence of defendant changing 15 year concurrent sentences to consecutive sentences violated North Carolina v. Pearce). No such rationale or reasons appear in this record. Thus we have no choice but to vacate the sentence for count II and remand once again for resentencing.
Sentence VACATED; REMANDED for Resentencing.
GRIFFIN, C.J., concurs and concurs specially with opinion.
HARRIS, J., dissents with opinion.
. § 800.04, Fla. Stat. (Supp.1986).
. § 794.011(2), Fla. Stat. (Supp.1986).
GRIFFIN, Chief Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur in the decision to vacate the sentence on Count II and remand, yet again, for resentencing. Mr. Kopko has raised multiple other claims collaterally attacking his conviction. This case, however, only involves a belated appeal of the sentencing issue. These other claims are not cognizable in this case. Mr. Kopko did file an appeal of the lower court’s summary denial of his motion for post-conviction relief but this court sua sponte dismissed it as premature. As I understand this court’s earlier rulings, Mr. Kopko can now seek review in this court of the lower court’s refusal to hear his motion for post-conviction relief, which the lower court concluded was untimely. Kopko v. State, 692 So. 2d 933 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997).
HARRIS, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
It may be that a sentence of 88 days in jail (the effective sentence) on the lewd assault on a child charge consecutive to the sentence of life in prison on the sexual battery count, since it replaced a concurrent fifteen year prison sentence, might be considered an enhanced sentence. But that does not end our inquiry.
Alabama v. Smith, 490 U.S. 794, 109 S.Ct. 2201, 104 L.Ed.2d 865 (1989), makes it clear that North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969), does not prohibit an enlarged sentence after reversal; it only prohibits the vindictiveness of the sentencing judge. See Wood v. State, 582 So. 2d 751 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991). In Alabama v. Smith, the United States Supreme Court explained:
Because the Pearce presumption “may operate in the absence of any proof of an improper motive and thus ... block a legitimate response to criminal conduct,” [citation omitted] we have limited its application, like that of “other ‘judicially created means of effectuating the rights secured by the [Constitution],’ “ to circumstances “where its ‘objectives are thought most efficaciously served,’ “ [Citations omitted]. Such circumstances are those in which there is a “reasonable likelihood,” [citation omitted] that the increase in sentence is the product of actual vindictiveness on the part of the sentencing authority. Where there is no such reasonable likelihood, the burden remains upon the defendant to prove actual vindictiveness.
490 U.S. at 799, 109 S.Ct. at 2205 (Emphasis added).
An effective sentence of 88 days in jail for a serious offense added to a life sentence does not, in my view, raise a reasonable likelihood of vindictiveness and Kopko has not met his burden of proving actual vindictiveness. I would affirm.
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Richardson v. State, 821 So. 2d 428 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002)…pendent legal basis or identifiable conduct on Richardson’s part, other than the filing of a legally meritorious 3.800 motion, which occurred after the imposition of the twenty-seven year sentence to justify the harsher sentence. See Kopko v. State, 709 So. 2d 159 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998). Given that his last two sentencing hearings were conducted by the same judge with the same information available to him, we find the Pearce presumption of vindictiveness applicable. Based on the foregoing, we affirm the denial…
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Rodriguez v. State, 917 So. 2d 958 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005)…entencing in accordance with the trial court’s original sentencing goal of concurrent sentences. See North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969); Everett v. State, 824 So. 2d 211 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002); Kopko v. State, 709 So. 2d 159 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998); Gaither v. State, 614 So. 2d 29 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993); Alfonso v. State, 561 So. 2d 1207 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990), review denied, 576 So. 2d 284 (Fla.1990); see also Blackshear v. State, 531 So. 2d 956 (Fla.1988); Herring v. State, 411 S…
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Kopko v. State, 733 So. 2d 1082 (Fla. 5th DCA 1999)…t dismissed the appeal of the other thirteen claims as premature until the belated appeal was decided and specified the dismissal was without prejudice. Then, once again, we reversed the sentence and again remanded for re-sentencing. Kopko v. State, 709 So. 2d 159 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998). Consistent with the dismissal order and the court’s most recent opinion, Mr. Kopko again appealed the denial of the first thirteen grounds of his post-conviction motion. We have invited a response from the state. The state sugg…
Authorities Cited (13 total)
- North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711 (U.S. 1969)
- Alabama v. Smith, 490 U.S. 794 (U.S. 1989)
- Burley Gilliam v. State, 582 So. 2d 610 (Fla. 1991)
- Arlecia Michelle Middleton v. State, 689 So. 2d 304 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997)
- Wood v. State, 582 So. 2d 751 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991)
- Alfonso v. State, 561 So. 2d 1207 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990)
- State v. Kopko, 596 So. 2d 669 (Fla. 1992)
- Whipple v. State, 596 So. 2d 669 (Fla. 1992)
- Medberry v. State, 699 So. 2d 857 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997)
- Larson v. State, 700 So. 2d 388 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997)