HENRY BLANTON, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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.
The court held that the giving of a forcible felony instruction was not fundamental error, and while a double jeopardy violation requires sentence reversal, an error in admitting expert testimony was harmless.
The defendant was convicted of aggravated battery with a firearm and related firearm possession. The appellate court reconsidered its prior decision i…
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.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Fundamental Error cases and more on FLexlaw
In view of the decision by the Florida Supreme Court in Martinez v. State, 981 So.2d 449 (Fla.2008), we have vacated and withdrawn our prior mandate issued in this cause, and have reconsidered the merits. In light of Martinez, we now conclude that the giving of the forcible felony instruction was not fundamental error under the facts of this case, and as it was unob-*425jeeted to in the present case, we find no error in that regard.
Our ruling on the double jeopardy violation described in the original opinion of this court1 will still require a reversal of the sentence and a remand for a new sentence. Mr. Blanton cannot be convicted of both an aggravated battery with a firearm and the related firearm possession offense.
Finally, while we continue to hold that it was error to allow the State to call and examine Mr. Blanton’s confidential mental health expert because Mr. Blanton had not waived the privilege associated with communications with that expert, our review of the limited testimony actually elicited from the expert leads us to conclude that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
Accordingly, we reverse the judgment and sentence and remand this matter to the trial court for the imposition of a new sentence based on either the aggravated battery with a firearm offense or the firearm possession offense, but not both.
REVERSED and REMANDED with INSTRUCTIONS.
PALMER, C.J., SAWAYA and MONACO, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Martinez v. State, 981 So. 2d 449 (Fla. 2008)
- Blanton v. State, 956 So. 2d 480 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007)
- State v. Blanton, 999 So. 2d 1061 (Fla. 2009)