TEAYOIR SCANTLING, PETITIONER,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, RESPONDENT

Fla. | 1998-05-21
No. 90968
KOGAN, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW, HARDING and ANSTEAD, JJ., concur., PARIENTE, J., recused.
711 So. 2d 524 Florida Supreme Court (1998) Positive Treatment
Cited by 22 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

The Florida Supreme Court resolved a conflict between district courts regarding whether a trial court can impose a consecutive sentence for a new offense committed while a defendant is on control-release status. The Court held that such consecutive sentencing is permissible because a control-release violation results in administrative action by the Parole Commission, not a sentence.


Holding

A trial court may impose a consecutive sentence for an offense committed while on control-release status. The Parole Commission's action on a control-release violation is not a sentence but an administrative determination; only courts can impose sentences, so a consecutive sentence does not run to an undetermined sentence.


Headnotes

[1] A court can impose a new sentence to run consecutively to a punishment for a control-release violation, as such punishment is not an undetermined future sentence.

[2] The action of the Parole Commission regarding a control-release violation is an administrative determination, not a sentence imposed by a court.

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Key Quotes

“An inmate on control release has already been sentenced for an earlier offense, and pursuant to section 947.141(4), Florida Statutes, an inmate violating control release may be returned to prison for the continued service of that sentence. Because this is not a new sentence, and the inmate is instead imprisoned under a sentence which has previously been determined and imposed, a separate consecutive sentence for another offense committed while on control release is not thereby precluded.”

Establishes the core holding that consecutive sentences for offenses committed on control-release are permissible because the control-release violation does not create a new sentence.

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Facts & Procedural History

Scantling was sentenced to seven years for attempted armed robbery in 1990. After serving part of his sentence, he was placed on control-release statu…

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Opinion of the Court
WELLS, Justice.

WELLS, Justice.

We have for review Scantling v. State, 704 So. 2d 565 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997) (en banc), which expressly and directly conflicts with the opinion in Lyons v. State, 672 So. 2d 654 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. We approve the decision of the First District Court of Appeal in Scantling and disapprove Lyons.

Scantling was sentenced to seven years in prison for an attempted armed robbery conviction in 1990. After serving part of that term, he was placed on control-release status. In December 1995, Scantling committed another offense, possession of cocaine, while he was on control-release status. In imposing the sentence for cocaine possession, the trial court indicated that the new sentence would be “served consecutively to the sentence he is currently serving.” However, the sentencing papers indicate that the present sentence is to be served consecutive to any sentence received for violation of control release. On appeal to the First District Court of Appeal, Scantling argued that the consecutive sentence is precluded by Currelly v. State, 678 So. 2d 453 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996), in which the First District affirmed the appellant’s conviction and sentence but struck the part of the sentence which referred to any sentence received for violation of control release, interpreting that phrase as purporting to require his sentence to be consecutive to an undetermined future sentence. The First District in Currelly cited Lyons v. State, 672 So. 2d 654 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996), for the proposition that a sentence cannot be imposed consecutive to an undetermined future sentence.

In this case, the First District affirmed Scantling’s sentence and receded from Cur-relly to the extent that Currelly stands for the proposition that a consecutive sentence is precluded for a control-release violation because the sentence would be consecutive to an undetermined future sentence. Scantling v. State, 704 So. 2d at 565. The First District acknowledged conflict with Lyons. Id. Petitioner alleged conflict, and we accepted jurisdiction.

Scantling argues that the First District erred in affirming the trial court’s sentencing determination and in receding from Currelly, which he cites in support of his contention that the Parole Commission’s as-yet undetermined action regarding his control-release violation is an undetermined sentence and thus the court cannot impose a new sentence to run consecutively to the punishment for the control-release violation. We disagree.

In the First District’s en banc opinion, Judge Allen explained:

An inmate on control release has already been sentenced for an earlier offense, and pursuant to section 947.141(4), Florida Statutes, an inmate violating control release may be returned to prison for the continued service of that sentence. Because this is not a new sentence, and the inmate is instead imprisoned under a sentence which has previously been determined and imposed, a separate consecutive sentence for another offense committed while on control release is not thereby precluded.

Scantling, 704 So. 2d at 565-66. We agree with the First District’s conclusion that a punishment for a control-release violation is not an as-yet undetermined sentence, and therefore a court can order a new sentence to run consecutive to such punishment. This is true because only a court can impose a sentence.1 An as-yet undetermined action of the Parole Commission is not a sentence. Rather, the Commission’s action is an administrative determination as to how an inmate’s control-release violation affects his status within the context of the sentence he has already received.

Accordingly, we approve the First District’s decision affirming Scantling’s sentence and receding from Currelly. We disapprove Lyons.

It is so ordered.

KOGAN, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW, HARDING and ANSTEAD, JJ., concur. PARIENTE, J., recused.

. Article IV, section 8(c), of the Florida Constitution provides in relevant part: “There may be created by law a parole and probation commission with power to supervise persons on probation and to grant paroles or conditional releases to persons under sentences for crime.” (Emphasis added.) See also Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.700, which defines "sentence” as a "pronouncement by the court of the penalty imposed on a defendant for the offense of which a defendant has been adjudged guilty.”


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Citator

Cited By

  • Williams v. State, 186 So. 3d 989 (Fla. 2016)
    …rthur v. State, 766 So. 2d 292, 293 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000) (“[T]he trial court still has the discretion to run the sentence either concurrently or consecutively to any future punishment for the [control-release] violation.”) (citing Scantling v. State, 711 So. 2d 524, 524 (Fla.l998));: see also § 775.021(4)(a), Fla. Stat. (2008) (“Whoever, in the course of one criminal transaction or episode, commits an act or acts which constitute one or more separate criminal offenses, upon conviction and adjudication of guilt…
  • Richardson v. State, 947 So. 2d 1219 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007)
    …iling to object to the trial court’s misstatement of the law and that his sentence was illegal. The law is clear that a trial court may order a sentence to run concurrently or consecutively to a pending control-release violation. Scantling v. State, 711 So. 2d 524, 525-26 (Fla.1998). In fact, the trial court must exercise its discretion to order a sentence imposed for an offense committed while on community release concurrent or consecutive to his or her community release sentence and cannot defer the structu…
  • McCARTHUR v. State, 766 So. 2d 292 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000)
    …decision has been made on the control release violation by the time of sentencing, the trial court still has the discretion to run the sentence either concurrently or consecutively to any future punishment for the violation. See Scantling v. State, 711 So. 2d 524 (Fla.1998). McCarthur is entitled to postconviction relief because, in his case, the trial court refused to exercise its lawful discretion. We, therefore, reverse the order denying McCarthur’s motion. On remand, the trial court shall resentence Mc…

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