JAVARRIS LANE, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Javarris Lane, a juvenile offender sentenced to life without parole for second-degree murder and 80 years for non-homicide offenses (aggravated child abuse and sexual battery), appeals his sentences. The court affirms the life sentence for murder but reverses and remands the 80-year aggregate sentences for non-homicide offenses as constituting a de facto life sentence in violation of Graham v. Florida.
The court affirms the life without parole sentence for second-degree murder because Miller v. Alabama permits, though does not mandate, such sentences when a sentencing court conducts an individualized mitigation inquiry. However, the court reverses the aggregate 80-year sentences for the non-homicide offenses because they constitute a de facto life sentence that violates Graham v. Florida, which forbids states from making a judgment at the outset that juvenile non-homicide offenders will never be fit to reenter society.
[1] A sentencing court may impose a life without parole sentence on a juvenile offender after conducting an individualized mitigation inquiry, even though a mandatory life wi…
[2] A de facto life sentence, one that exceeds a defendant's life expectancy, should be deemed a life sentence for purposes of Graham v. …
Previewing 2 of 6 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“Although Miller prohibits the imposition of a mandatory life without parole sentence on a juvenile offender, the Supreme Court recognized that a sentencing court may still impose a life without parole sentence, after conducting an individualized mitigation inquiry.”
Establishes that while Miller prohibits mandatory juvenile life sentences, discretionary life sentences remain permissible with individualized consideration.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceLane was convicted of second-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and sexual battery when he was sixteen years old. The trial court imposed a life s…
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On direct appeal, Javarris Lane challenges sentences imposed for offenses committed when he was sixteen. After granting a motion to correct sentencing error pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b)(2), the trial court re-sentenced Mr. Lane to life in prison without the possibility of parole for second-degree murder, to a concurrent term of thirty years’ imprisonment for aggravated child abuse, and to a term of fifty years’ imprisonment for sexual battery consecutive both to the thirty-year and the life terms. Although we affirm the life sentence, we reverse the sentences for the non-homicide offenses aggregating eighty years, and remand for resentencing on the aggravated child abuse and sexual battery charges.
On the authority of Copeland v. State, 129 So.3d 508 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014), we affirm the sentence of life with no possibility of parole imposed for second-degree murder. “[Although Miller [v. Alabama, — U.S. -, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012),] prohibits the imposition of a mandatory life without parole sentence on a juvenile offender, the Su*21preme Court recognized that a sentencing court may still impose a life without parole sentence, after conducting an individualized mitigation inquiry.” Id. at 510. See also Washington v. State, 108 So.3d 917, 919-20 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012) (“[T]he Supreme Court in Miller ruled its decision ‘mandates only that a sentencer follow a certain process — considering an offender’s youth and attendant characteristics — before imposing a particular penalty.’ ” (citation omitted)). In the present case, as in Copeland, the “sentencing court conducted an individualized mitigation inquiry, considering several potential mitigating factors before finding that life without the possibility of parole was, nevertheless, appropriate.” Copeland, 129 So.3d at 511.
We reverse the consecutive sentences aggregating eighty years’ imprisonment, imposed for aggravated child abuse and sexual battery. We have said that “a de facto life sentence is one that exceeds the defendant’s life expectancy,” Adams v. State, — So.3d -, 2012 WL 3193932, 37 Fla. L. Weekly D1865, D1866 (Fla. 1st DCA Aug. 8, 2012), and that such a sentence should be deemed a life sentence for purposes of Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 130 S.Ct. 2011, 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010).1 In Floyd v. State, 87 So.3d 45 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012), the defendant was sentenced to consecutive forty-year terms of imprisonment for two armed robbery convictions. We reversed the sentences for two non-homicide offenses aggregating eighty years, holding:
Appellant, if he serves the entirety of his sentence, will be ninety-seven when he is released. Even if Appellant received the maximum amount of gain time, the earliest he would be released is at age eighty-five. See § 921.002(1)(e), Fla. Stat. (1998) (providing that parole is not applied to defendants sentenced under the Criminal Punishment Code, that sentences in Florida reflect the length of actual time to be served, shortened only by the application of incentive and meritorious gain time, and that defendants must serve no less than eighty-five percent of their term of imprisonment). This situation does not in any way provide Appellant with a meaningful or realistic opportunity to obtain release, as required by Graham. While the trial court was correct that the Eighth Amendment does not foreclose the possibility that juveniles who commit non-homicide crimes will remain in prison for life, Graham also cautioned that states are foreclosed from making the judgment at the outset that those offenders will never be fit to reenter society....
In this case, common sense dictates[2] that Appellant’s eighty-year sentence, *22which, according to the statistics cited by Appellant, is longer than his life expectancy, is the functional equivalent of a life without parole sentence and will not provide him with a meaningful or realistic opportunity to obtain release.
Id. at 46-47. Here, as in Floyd, Mr. Lane’s sentences were imposed under the Criminal Punishment Code, which requires convicts to serve at least eighty-five percent of their . sentences. See § 944.275(4)(b)3., Fla. Stat. (2011).3 On the authority of Floyd, where the challenged sentences also aggregated eighty years,4 we reverse and remand for resen-tencing as to the two non-homicide convictions. But see Gridine v. State, 89 So.3d 909, 910-11 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011), review granted, 103 So.3d 139 (Fla.2012) (affirming a seventy-year sentence with a twenty-five-year minimum mandatory for a fourteen-year-old defendant).
The state acknowledges that, under our precedent, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for murder does not render Graham inapplicable to the sentences imposed for these two non-homicide offenses. See Johnson v. State, — So.3d -, -, 2013 WL 1809685, 38 Fla. L. Weekly D953, D953-54 (Fla. 1st DCA Apr. 30, 2013) (certifying conflict with Lawton v. State, 109 So.3d 825, 829 (Fla. 3d DCA 2013), review granted, 143 So.3d 919 (Fla.2014), in which the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed a sentence of life in prison for attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, ordered to run consecutively with a sentence of life in prison (without parole eligibility for twenty-five years) for first-degree murder); Akins v. State, 104 So.3d 1173, 1175-76 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012) (holding Graham precluded a life sentence without the possibility of parole for attempted murder because nothing in Graham “would permit imposing life sentences without parole for nonhomicide offenses, even if the juvenile has committed a homicide in some earlier episode or, as here, was earlier sentenced to a term of years for a homicide”). See also Jackson v. State, — So.3d -, -, 2013 WL 3013582, 38 Fla. L. Weekly 1334, 1334-35 (Fla. 1st DCA June 18, 2013) (rejecting argument that Gmham “recognized a limited exception when the offender has also been convicted and sentenced for a homicide in the same proceeding, as did in fact occur in the present case” and reversing multiple life sentences imposed for non-homicide crimes pursuant to Graham); Weiand v. State, 129 So.3d 434, 435 (Fla. 5th DCA 2013) (reversing concurrent terms of life in prison for kidnapping and robbery convictions, to begin after a sentence of life in prison for a homicide conviction).5 But see Orange v. State, 149 So.3d 74, 84, at *10 (Fla. 4th DCA Sept. 3, 2014) (holding Graham allows the imposition of a life sentence without parole on a juvenile for a non-homicide offense when a *23homicide offense also occurred in the same criminal episode); Starks v. State, 128 So.3d 91, 92 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013) (same); Lawton, 109 So.3d at 828-29 (same). Here, as in Johnson, we reverse for resen-tencing on the non-homicide offenses even though “he will serve the remainder of his life in prison for the homicide offense he committed” against the same victim. Johnson, — So.3d at -, 38 Fla. L. Weekly at D954 (reversing for Johnson to be resentenced on a conviction of burglary with an assault).
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for resentencing.
LEWIS, C.J. and MARSTILLER, J., concur.
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Laisha L. Landrum v. State, 192 So. 3d 459 (Fla. 2016)…775.082, 921.1401, and 921.1402 of the Florida Statutes, and disapprove Lightsey v. State, 182 So. 3d 727 (Fla. 3d DCA 2015), Kendrick, v. State, 171 So. 3d 778 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015), Lindsey v. State, 168 So. 3d 267 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015), Lane v. State, 151 So. 3d 20 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014), Mason v. State, 134 So. 3d 499 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014), and Starks v. State, 128 So. 3d 91 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013), to the extent that they are inconsistent with this opinion. FACTS AND BACKGROUND Petitioner Laisha L. Landrum was sixte…1 / 2
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Torrence Lawton v. State, 181 So. 3d 452 (Fla. 2015)…homicide-case exception to Graham); Johnson v. State, — So. 3d -, 38 Fla. L. Weekly D953 (Fla. 1st DCA Apr. 30, 2013) (same); Jackson v. State, — So. 3d -, 38 Fla. L. Weekly D1334, 2013 WL 3013582 (Fla. 1st DCA June 18, 2013) (same); Lane v. State, 151 So. 3d 20, 22 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014) (same); Weiand v. State, 129 So. 3d 434, 435 (Fla. 5th DCA 2013) (same); with Lawton, 109 So. 3d at 828 (recognizing a homicide-case exception to Graham); Washington v. State, 110 So. 3d 1, 2-3 (Fla. 2d DCA 2012) (same); Star…
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Kendrick D. Morris v. State, 198 So. 3d 31 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015)…or evidence of life-expectancy presented by Gridine or the State at sentencing, but it is clear that a juvenile’s life'expectancy is relevant to the determination of whether a lengthy term-of-years sentence is constitutional. Compare Lane v. State, 151 So. 3d 20, 21 n. 2 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014) (noting that the State objected to appellant’s argument regarding life expectancy because the documents were not admitted into evidence but not making any findings as to appellant’s life expectancy), with Adams, 188 So.…
Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited (14 total)
- Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (U.S. 2012)
- Graham v. Florida (1st Cir. 2010)
- Leighdon Henry v. State, 82 So. 3d 1084 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012)
- Floyd v. State, 87 So. 3d 45 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012)
- Peters v. State, 128 So. 3d 832 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013)
- Shimeek Gridine v. State, 89 So. 3d 909 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011)
- Walle v. State, 99 So. 3d 967 (Fla. 2d DCA 2012)
- Starks v. State, 128 So. 3d 91 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013)
- Torrence Lawton v. State, 109 So. 3d 825 (Fla. 3d DCA 2013)
- Aundra R. Akins v. State, 104 So. 3d 1173 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012)