JOHN J. CARROLL, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 2009-09-23
No. 3D09-2137
Before RAMIREZ, C.J., and COPE and GERSTEN, JJ.
20 So. 3d 913 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2009) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 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

John Carroll appealed the denial of his motion to correct an illegal sentence imposed in 1982 for third-degree murder, armed burglary, and armed robbery. The court affirmed the denial, holding that a prior remand for sentencing correction did not authorize a new sentencing hearing or an election to be sentenced under the sentencing guidelines.


Holding

The court held that the 1985 remand was limited to correcting the specific sentencing errors identified—reducing the armed robbery sentence and making certain mandatory minimums concurrent—and did not authorize a plenary resentencing hearing or an election to be sentenced under the guidelines.


Headnotes

[1] A remand for correction of a sentencing order, with specific directions for sentence reduction and modification of mandatory minimum terms, does not necessitate a new sen…

[2] A prior appellate court's specific directions for sentence correction preclude a trial court from exercising discretion to grant a plenary resentencing hearing.

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

Key Quotes

“This court's remand in the defendant's case was a remand for correction of his sentence by reducing his one-hundred year armed robbery sentence to the appropriate legal maximum of thirty years, and changing his mandatory minimum sentences from consecutive to concurrent. Since this court had issued specific directions about the sentence the defendant was to receive, this left the trial court with no discretion but to correct the sentences as directed.”

Establishes that the prior remand was limited to correction and did not authorize a new sentencing hearing

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Carroll was convicted in 1982 of third-degree murder, armed burglary, and armed robbery. In 1985, the appellate court affirmed his convictions but dir…

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
COPE, J.

COPE, J.

This is an appeal of an order denying the motion of defendant-appellant John J. Carroll to correct illegal sentence under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(a).* We affirm.

The defendant was convicted and sentenced in 1982 for third-degree murder, armed burglary, and armed robbery. This *914court affirmed the convictions but directed that the sentence for armed robbery be reduced to the appropriate legal maximum of thirty years. Carroll v. State, 497 So.2d 253, 266-67 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985) (en banc). The court also directed that the three-year mandatory minimum terms be changed from consecutive to concurrent. Id. at 267.

The defendant argues that the remand for correction of the sentencing order meant that the defendant should have been granted a new sentencing hearing. He contends that at such a hearing, he would have been allowed to elect to be sentenced under the sentencing guidelines. See Logan v. State, 921 So.2d 556 (Fla.2005); Smith v. State, 537 So.2d 982 (Fla.1989); Crowder v. State, 735 So.2d 563 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999). The defendant’s theory is that a sentence under the 1983 version of the guidelines, see Logan, 921 So.2d at 560, would result in a significantly lower sentence — although this part of the defendant’s argument would not hold true if there were grounds to impose a departure sentence.

The defendant acknowledges that he has made this argument in previous postcon-viction motions, and that relief has been denied. He argues, however, that the claim should be revisited under the manifest injustice exception to the res judicata doctrine recognized in State v. McBride, 848 So.2d 287 (Fla.2003).

The defendant’s argument fails at the threshold. This court’s remand in the defendant’s case was a remand for correction of his sentence by reducing his one-hundred year armed robbery sentence to the appropriate legal maximum of thirty years, and changing his mandatory minimum sentences from consecutive to concurrent. Since this court had issued specific directions about the sentence the defendant was to receive, this left the trial court with no discretion but to correct the sentences as directed. This court’s earlier opinion called for correction of a portion of the defendant’s sentence, and did not call for, or allow, a plenary resentencing hearing. That being so, there was no occasion for the defendant to elect to be sentenced under the sentencing guidelines. This defendant’s circumstances differ from those in Logan, Smith, and Crowder.

We acknowledge that there is language in the trial court’s order which erroneously applies some Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 successiveness principles to this Rule 3.800(a) motion, whereas the relevant principles are found in McBride. Upon considering the appeal in light of McBride, we conclude that there is no manifest injustice and the trial court reached the correct result.

Affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Carroll v. State, 128 So. 3d 42 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012)
    …PER CURIAM. Denied. See Carroll v. State, 20 So. 3d 913 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009); Carroll v. State, 69 So. 3d 1118 (Fla. 3d DCA 2011).…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw