WILLIAM DAVIS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 2015-12-16
Nos. 4D11-2993, 4D11-2994
GROSS and FORST, JJ., concur.
182 So. 3d 700 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2015) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases

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Synopsis

William Davis appeals a probation revocation and consecutive eighty-year sentence imposed for juvenile sexual battery offenses. The Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed and remanded for resentencing, finding that the aggregate eighty-year sentence violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment under Graham v. Florida because it fails to provide a meaningful opportunity for release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.


Holding

The court held that the eighty-year sentence violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment established in Graham v. Florida and applied in Henry v. State. The court reversed the sentence and remanded for resentencing because a juvenile nonhomicide offender's sentence must provide a meaningful opportunity for release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.


Headnotes

[1] A defendant's probation may be revoked upon a finding that the defendant willfully violated conditions of probation, including committing new offenses, failing to report…

[2] A sentence imposed on a juvenile nonhomicide offender implicates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment when it does not afford a meaningful…

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Key Quotes

“that the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment under Graham is implicated when a juvenile nonhomicide offender's sentence does not afford any 'meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.'”

States the governing constitutional standard from Henry v. State that applies to juvenile nonhomicide offenders

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Facts & Procedural History

Davis was convicted in 1997 of two counts of sexual battery by a person under 18 on a child under 12, and one count of indecent assault of a person le…

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Opinion of the Court
MAY, J.

MAY, J.

■ We sua sponte withdraw our previously issued opinion and substitute this opinion in its place.

In this consolidated appeal of two criminal cases, the defendant challenges an order revoking his probation and imposing two consecutive forty-year sentences. In Case Nó. 96-21254CF10A; the defendant was convicted of two counts of sexual battery by a person under 18 on a'child under 12, and one count of indecent assault of a person less than 16 years' óf age. In'Case No. 96-23307CF10A, the defendant was eonvicted of one count of sexual battery by a person under 18 on a child under 12. Following these convictions in 1997, the trial court sentenced the defendant to a term of ten years in prison to be followed by ten years’ probation.

In 2009, less than three years after his release from prison, the State filed affidavits of violation of probation (“VOP”). The trial court modified the defendant’s probation to include electronic monitoring and a 10:00 p.m. curfew. Throughout 2009, several other affidavits of VOP were filed, but the defendant’s probation was reinstated with special conditions added.

In 2011, the State filed the affidavits of VOP at issue. After the defendant was arrested, the State filed a Second Amended Affidavit of VOP, alleging that the defendant violated eleven conditions of,his probation. After a VOP hearing, the trial court concluded the defendant violated five conditions of his probation: (1) leaving the county without the consent of his probation officer;. (2) failing to live and remain at liberty without violating any law by committing sexual battery against a child less than 12 years old; (3) falsely reporting to his -probation officer that he had no.t used illegal drugs; (4) failing to actively participate in and successfully complete a sex offender- treatment program at his own *702expense; and (5) failing to participate at least annually in polygraph examinations as a part of a treatment program.

The trial court revoked the defendant’s probation and sentenced him to two concurrent life sentences for two counts of sexual battery by a person under 18 on a child under 12, to run concurrent with a fifteen-year prison sentence for indecent assault of a person under 16 years of age;, and life in prison for sexual battery by a person under 18 on a child under 12, The sentences were to run consecutively.

The defendant filed a Motion to Correct Illegal Sentences under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b)(2), arguing that the life sentences imposed for non-homicide crimes committed as a juvenile violated the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment as found in the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The trial court granted the defendant’s motion, and re-sentenced him to two concurrent forty-year sentences for two counts of sexual battery by a person under 18 on a child under 12, to run concurrent with a fifteen-year prison sentence for indecent assault of a person under 16 years of age; and forty years in prison for sexual battery by a person under 18 on a child under 12. The sentences were to run consecutively. The aggregate sentence is eighty years in prison. The defendant appealed.

He raised three issues: (1) the trial court erred in finding the defendant willfully violated his probation; (2) the court erred in finding the defendant willfully violated conditions four and five; and (3) the eighty-year sentence is cruel and unusual because it is a de facto life sentence. We find no merit in the first two issues,' but must remand the case to the trial court for resentencing in light of the Supreme Court of Florida’s decision in Henry v. State, 175 So.3d 675 (Fla.2015). In Henry, the supreme court held “that the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment under Graham is implicated when a juvenile nonhomicide offender’s sentence does not afford any ‘meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.’” Id. at 679 (quoting Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 75, 130 S.Ct. 2011, 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010)).

Here, the defendant was a juvenile when the offenses were committed. His eighty-year sentence runs afoul of Henry. We therefore reverse and remand for another re-sentencing.

Reversed and Remanded.

GROSS and FORST, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Alden Stephenson v. State, 197 So. 3d 1126 (Fla. 3d DCA 2016)
    …der has a meaningful opportunity during the offender’s natural life to obtain release. In this cáse, because Stephenson’s crimes were committed as a juvenile, and because his sentences run consecutively, they run afoul of Henry. See Davis v. State, 182 So. 3d 700 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015) (reversing, under Henry, the trial court’s resentencing order that resentenced youthful offender to two. forty-year consecutive terms for two crimes .with two different case numbers). Therefore, we vacate both the trial court’s…

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