PEDRO RODRIGUEZ, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 2005-12-21
No. 3D04-1277
Before GREEN and SUAREZ, JJ., and SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.
917 So. 2d 958 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2005) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 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

Pedro Rodriguez appeals a resentencing order that reclassified several of his felony convictions from life felonies to first-degree felonies and reduced sentences accordingly, but changed the original concurrent sentences to consecutive sentences. The court held that changing concurrent sentences to consecutive sentences on remand violates the defendant's due process rights under the Pearce vindictiveness doctrine and reversed the consecutive sentencing aspect.


Holding

The court held that the trial court violated Rodriguez's due process rights by changing the concurrent sentences to consecutive sentences on remand. The Pearce vindictiveness doctrine applies even when different judges are involved if the only reason for resentencing is to correct and reduce aspects of a previous sentence. The court reversed the consecutive sentencing aspect and required resentencing with concurrent sentences as originally imposed.


Headnotes

[1] A scrivener's error in a judgment referring to crimes as life felonies should be amended to designate them as first degree felonies if that is the correct classification.

[2] Imposing a harsher sentence after a defendant successfully attacks a conviction or sentence on appeal gives rise to a presumption of vindictiveness.

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Key Quotes

“The imposition of a harsher sentence after a defendant has successfully attacked a conviction or sentence on appeal gives rise to a presumption of vindictiveness which may be overcome only by identification of information in the record which justifies the increased sentence.”

Establishes the legal standard for vindictive sentencing challenges under Pearce; the burden is on the state to justify any increased sentence.

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Facts & Procedural History

Rodriguez was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder (three counts), armed robbery, conspiracy to traffic in cocaine, and arm…

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Opinion of the Court
SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.

SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.

This is an appeal from an order resentencing the appellant pursuant to a motion to correct an illegal sentence.

Defendant was convicted of and sentenced to concurrent sentences of life with a twenty-five year minimum mandatory sentence on count I for first degree murder; life terms on counts II-IV for attempted first degree murder; life on count V for armed robbery; thirty years with a fifteen-year minimum mandatory on count VI for conspiracy to traffic in cocaine; and life with a fifteen-year minimum mandatory on count VII for armed trafficking. This court affirmed. Rodriguez v. State, 591 So. 2d 308 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991), review denied, 601 So. 2d 553 (Fla.1992).

Defendant subsequently filed a Rule 3.800(a) motion to correct the judgment to indicate that counts II-IV, VI, VII were first degree rather than life felonies, and to resentence him to no more than the statutory maximum of 30 years for first degree felony offenses. At the hearing on defendant’s motion, the court agreed to reclassify the counts at issue and resen-tenced defendant, in pertinent part, to 30 years on counts II-IV, VI, and VII. No one complains about this ruling. The defendant does challenge, however, the fact that the court also ordered counts I through VII to run consecutively. We agree with his position.

I.

First, there is no dispute that the trial court properly granted the motion by reclassifying counts II through IV, VI, and VII as first degree felonies and correcting defendant’s sentences accordingly. See State v. Rodriguez, 602 So. 2d 1270 (Fla.1992). A scrivener’s error in the judgment that refers to the crimes respectively involved in counts II through IV, VI, and VII as life felonies should be similarly amended to designate them as first degree felonies. II.

Turning to the point now in is-, sue, we find no lawful basis for, in effect, penalizing the defendant for correctly filing the Rule 3.800(a) motion, by increasing his sentences to run consecutively rather than concurrently as originally provided. As stated in Weekley v. State, 584 So. 2d 78, 81 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991):

The imposition of a harsher sentence after a defendant has successfully attacked a conviction or sentence on appeal gives rise to a presumption of vindictiveness which may be overcome only by identification of information in the record which justifies the increased sentence. United States v. Goodwin, 457 U.S. 368, 102 S.Ct. 2485, 73 L.Ed.2d 74 (1982); North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969), overruled, in part, on other grounds, Alabama v. Smith, 490 U.S. 794, 799-803, 109 S.Ct. 2201, 2205-07, 104 L.Ed.2d 865 (1989); Wemett v. State, 567 So. 2d 882 (Fla.1990); Blackshear v. State, 531 So. 2d 956 (Fla.1988).

In the instant case, the sentences imposed upon remand are consecutive and, thus, are harsher than the original oral sentence of life with concurrent term of year sentences. The trial judge failed to overcome the presumption of vindictiveness since the judge during resentencing solely relied on evidence adduced at the earlier trial and not on any conduct on the part of the defendant occurring after the original sentencing. See Goodwin, 457 U.S. at 368, 102 S.Ct. at 2486; Pearce, 395 U.S. at 711, 89 S.Ct. at 2072; Wemett, 567 So. 2d at 882; Blackshear, 531 So. 2d at 956.

Therefore, we conclude that the trial court violated the defendant’s due process rights, and reverse his sentence. For the aforementioned reasons, we reverse the sentence imposed and remand for resentencing 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 So. 2d 966 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982). Thus, the order on review shall be further corrected to provide for the sentences to be served concurrently.

We do not feel bound by apparently contrary language in Price v. State, 838 So. 2d 587 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003), in which the Pearce line of cases, which controls this issue, was not cited to the Court. The language that “on resentencing the trial court may instead choose to impose a statutorily prescribed harsher sentence, if it so chooses,” Price, 838 So. 2d at 588, is properly viewed as applying only if some additional factor, which is not present in this case, would justify an increased sentence after correction. See Texas v. McCullough, 475 U.S. 134, 106 S.Ct. 976, 89 L.Ed.2d 104 (1986); cf. Richardson v. State, 821 So. 2d 428 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002).

That this is the proper resolution of the problem is shown by the fact that it has been consistently applied in cases decided both before and after Price. See Sands v. State, 899 So. 2d 1208 (Fla. 5th DCA 2005); James v. State, 868 So. 2d 1242 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004).

The state cites several cases which indicate that the Pearce-vindictive sentencing principle does not apply when, as here, two different trial judges are involved. E.g., Holland v. State, 916 So. 2d 750 (Fla.2005); Bowen v. State, 868 So. 2d 541, 546 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003); Richardson, 821 So. 2d at 430; Graham v. State, 681 So. 2d 1178 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996); Harris v. State, 653 So. 2d 402, 404 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995), review denied, 662 So. 2d 342 (Fla.1995), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1082, 116 S.Ct. 796, 133 L.Ed.2d 744 (1996); cf. Carter v. State, 791 So. 2d 568, 572 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001), review denied, 817 So. 2d 845 (Fla.2002).

That fact does not matter, however, when the only reason for resentencing at all is to correct and reduce aspects of a previous sentence which in all other respects was appropriate. See Macomber v. Hannigan, 15 F. 3d 155, 156 (10th Cir.1994)(“when a different judge imposes a more severe sentence than the sentence imposed in the initial trial and the judge provides an ‘on-the-record, wholly logical, nonvindictive reason for the [harsher] sentence,’ the Pearce presumption of vindictiveness does not apply”)(emphasis added) (citation omitted); Sands, 899 So. 2d at 1211; James, 868 So. 2d at 1246. In fact, different judges were involved in previous cases involving this very issue. See Kopko, 709 So. 2d at 159; Gaither, 614 So. 2d at 29; Weekley, 584 So. 2d at 78; Alfonso, 561 So. 2d at 1207; see also Kramer v. State, 868 So. 2d 1246, 1249 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004)(increased sentence imposed on remand may exceed original sentence if based on factors which justify harsher sentence; “the question is not whether successor judge is acting vindictively, but rather whether the sentence imposed gives the appearance of vindictiveness”); Van Loan v. State, 779 So. 2d 497, 500 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000), review denied, 791 So. 2d 1103 (Fla.2001).

We note also that while Herring may suggest that when a sentence on one count is reduced on appeal, sentences on the others may, within lawful limits, be increased to reflect a total sentence corresponding to the trial court’s original intent, Herring, 411 So. 2d at 968, we discern no intent on the part of the first sentencer in this case to do anything more than impose one “composite” life sentence upon the defendant. We effect that intent and, more importantly, apply the due process principles of Pearce by eliminating the necessarily prejudicial and unjustified consecutive aspect of the new sentences now before us. See Herring.

The sentences on appeal are accordingly affirmed in part, and amended in part, and the cause is remanded for resentencing.1

. Defendant need not be present.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Wilson v. State, 951 So. 2d 1039 (Fla. 3d DCA 2007)
    …ant was sentenced to ninety years in prison, when, moments earlier, the judge was prepared to accept a sixty-seven month plea. Thus, the trial judge’s explanation is insufficient to overcome the presumption of vindictiveness. See Rodriguez v. State, 917 So. 2d 958, 960 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005)(finding that the trial judge failed to overcome the presumption of vindictiveness accompanying a higher sentence after resentencing when the judge relied only on evidence that was known at the time of the initial sentencing).…
  • Austin v. State, 239 So. 3d 93 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018)
    …ge imposes a harsher sentence after the defendant successfully attacks the original sentence.” Graham v. State, 681 So. 2d 1178, 1178 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996); see also Sands v. State, 899 So. 2d 1208, 1211 (Fla. 5th DCA 2005). Rodriguez v. State, 917 So. 2d 958 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005), is on point. In Rodriguez, the trial court sentenced the defendant to concurrent life sentences for murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, and armed trafficking as well as a concurrent thirty-year sentence for conspiracy to…
  • Ryan v. State (Fla. 2d DCA 2020)
    …---PAGE 12--- concurrently if he entered a plea. But after proceeding to trial, the judge ultimately sentenced Ryan to harsher sentences in each case and, more significantly, ordered the sentences to run consecutively. See Rodriguez v. State, 917 So. 2d 958, 960 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005) (concluding that consecutive sentences were harsher than concurrent sentences for purposed of vindictiveness analysis). Finally, the record makes clear that the judge was well aware of Ryan's prior record before the trial…

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