STEVEN MCGREGOR, PETITIONER,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, RESPONDENT

Fla. | 2001-07-12
No. SC00-1215
WELLS, C.J., and SHAW, HARDING, ANSTEAD, and PARIENTE, JJ., concur. QUINCE, J., dissents.
789 So. 2d 976 Florida Supreme Court (2001) Negative Treatment
Cited by 16 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.


Holding

The court held that the Prison Releasee Reoffender Act does not require proof of a defendant's release to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, as it limits sentencing discretion rather than increasing the statutory maximum penalty.


Headnotes

[1] A defendant's release from a correctional facility, which subjects them to sentencing under a recidivist statute, does not need to be proven to a jury beyond a reasonable…

[2] The United States Supreme Court's holding in Apprendi v. …

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

The petitioner challenged his sentence under the Prison Releasee Reoffender Act, arguing that Apprendi v. New Jersey required proof of his release to …

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
LEWIS, J.

LEWIS, J.

We have for review McGregor v. State, 763 So. 2d 1222 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. The petitioner challenges his sentence under the Prison Releasee Reoffender Act (the “Act”) on several grounds, many of which have been previously addressed by opinions of this Court. See Grant v. State, 770 So. 2d 665 (Fla.2000) (rejecting an ex post facto challenge to the Act and holding that the Act violates neither the single subject rule for legislation nor principles of equal protection); McKnight v. State, 769 So. 2d 1039 (Fla.2000) (holding that a defendant has the right both to present evidence to prove that the defendant does not qualify for sentencing under the Act and to challenge the State’s evidence regarding the defendant’s eligibility for sentencing as a prison releasee reoffender); State v. Cotton, 769 So. 2d 345 (Fla.2000) (holding that the Act does not permit a “victim veto” which would violate a defendant’s due process rights by precluding application of the Act in some instances but not others, as well as holding that the Act is not void for vagueness and does not constitute a form of cruel or unusual punishment); Ellis v. State, 762 So. 2d 912 (Fla.2000) (recognizing that publication in the Laws of Florida or the Florida Statutes gives all citizens constructive notice of the consequences of their actions).

Finally, the petitioner asserts that he is entitled to relief pursuant to the United States Supreme Court’s holding in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). First, the petitioner did not properly preserve the issue for appellate review. Even if he had, we would hold that an argument for relief under Apprendi lacks merit here. In Apprendi, the Supreme Court stated: “Other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Apprendi 530 U.S. at 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348. The petitioner now asserts that because sentencing under the Act requires that a defendant “commit[ ], or attempt! ] to commit” any of an enumerated list of crimes “within 3 years of being released from a state correctional facility operated by the Department of Corrections or a private vendor,” section 775.082(9)(a)(l).,1 Fla. Stat. (Supp.1998), the reasoning in Apprendi requires that a defendant’s release be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. We disagree.

In our view, Apprendi did not overrule the Supreme Court’s previous decision in McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 2411, 91 L.Ed.2d 67 (1986). In McMillan, the Supreme Court considered a statute which imposed a mandatory minimum sentence in connection with an offense committed while a defendant possessed a visible firearm and held that proof of the possession of the firearm was not required because the possession did not alter the maximum penalty or create a separate offense calling for a separate penalty. The Apprendi Court made clear that it was not overruling McMillan when it stated:

The principal dissent accuses us of today “overruling McMillan.” We do not overrule McMillan. We limit its holding to eases that do not involve the imposition of a sentence more severe than the statutory maximum for the offense established by the jury’s verdict— a limitation identified in the McMillan opinion itself.

Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 487 n. 13, 120 S.Ct. 2348. The Apprendi Court reasoned that the statute addressed in McMillan neither altered the maximum penalty for the crime committed nor created a separate offense calling for a separate penalty. The statute was viewed solely as a limitation upon the sentencing court’s discretion to select the penalty within the range already available.

It is our opinion that the Act does not increase the maximum statutory penalty. Here the sentencing court’s discretion in selecting a penalty within the statutory range is simply limited. Accordingly, proof to the jury of a defendant’s release which subjects a defendant to a sentence under the Act is not required.

We agree with the reasoning of the Fourth District in Kijewski v. State, 773 So. 2d 124 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000), review denied, No. SC01-181, 790 So. 2d 1105 (Fla. Apr.30, 2001). We hold that Appren-di does not require that the petitioner’s release be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. We also determine that the petitioner’s related arguments based on Apprendi are similarly unavailing.2 Moreover, it is important to note that we have previously reached a similar conclusion in connection with sentencing under another recidivist statute. See Eutsey v. State, 383 So. 2d 219, 224 (Fla.1980) (rejecting a petitioner’s due process argument that particular facts required for his sentencing under a habitual offender statute were subject to standard of being proved beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury). Accordingly, we approve the decision of the district court to the extent it is consistent with Grant, McKniglit, Cotton, and Ellis.

It is so ordered.

WELLS, C.J., and SHAW, HARDING, ANSTEAD, and PARIENTE, JJ., concur. QUINCE, J., dissents.

. Prior to the Act's amendment in 1998, similar language appeared in subsection (8)(a)(l).

. We further reject the assertion that relief is warranted under the fundamental error doctrine,


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (14 total)

  • Hughes v. State, 901 So. 2d 837 (Fla. 2005)
    …fying same question as in Hughes under same circumstances); Enoch v. State, 873 So. 2d 443 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004) (per curiam affirmance without opinion citing Figarola). . I disagree with the majority’s reliance on our statement in McGregor v. State, 789 So. 2d 976, 977 (Fla.2001), that an Apprendi claim was unpreserved and does not constitute fundamental error to support its holding that Apprendi is not retroactive. The issue in McGregor was whether, in light of Apprendi, the defendant's release must be prove…
    1 / 2
  • Plott v. State, 148 So. 3d 90 (Fla. 2014)
    …edural error in sentencing that could have been preserved and raised on direct appeal. Thus, it was not cognizable under rule 3.800(a).” Plott, 86 So. 3d at 519. In so holding, the district court relied on this Court’s decision in McGregor v. State, 789 So. 2d 976, 977 (Fla.2001), which held that an Apprendi error is procedural in nature and must be preserved for review. The First District Court in Hughes resolved a wholly different legal issue. Hughes’s conviction and sentence were final before Apprendi is…
  • McCLOUD v. State, 803 So. 2d 821 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001)
    …ssue is resolved. It appears to us that the Florida courts that have considered Apprendi thus far understand the term “statutory maximum” under Florida’s sentencing scheme to be the maximum penalties set forth in section 775.082. McGregor v. State, 789 So. 2d 976 (Fla.2001), approving Kijewski v. State, 773 So. 2d 124 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000), review denied, 790 So. 2d 1105 (Fla.2001). See Gilson v. State, 795 So. 2d 105 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001)(penetration “is merely a ‘sentencing factor’ that the judge considered in…
    1 / 2

Previewing 3 of 14 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw