ANTHONY DOMINIC CATALANO
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA
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Section 776.032(4), Florida's amended Stand Your Ground statute placing the burden on the State to overcome self-defense immunity by clear and convincing evidence, applies only to immunity hearings conducted on or after the statute's effective date and does not apply retroactively to hearings held before that date.
[1] A procedural amendment to a statute governing Stand Your Ground immunity hearings applies only to hearings conducted on or after the amendment's effective date and does n…
Previewing 1 of 1 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“Section 776.032(4) is a procedural change in the law and applies to all Stand Your Ground immunity hearings conducted on or after the statute's effective date.”
The court cited Love v. State to explain the temporal application of the amended statute.
Catalano was charged with manslaughter with a weapon and filed a pre-trial motion to dismiss based on Florida's Stand Your Ground law. The trial court…
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NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING
MOTION AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
OF FLORIDA
SECOND DISTRICT
ANTHONY DOMINIC CATALANO, Appellant,
V.
STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.
) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Case No. 2D16-3307
Opinion filed June 19, 2020.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County; Samantha L. Ward, Judge.
Rachael E. Reese of O'Brien Hatfield, P.A., Tampa, for Appellant.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Brandon R. Christian, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
ON REMAND FROM THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT
VILLANTI, Judge.
This matter is before us on remand from the Florida Supreme Court for reconsideration based on its decision in Love v. State, 286 So. 3d 177 (Fla. 2019). Prior to trial, Anthony Dominic Catalano filed a motion to dismiss the information, which charged him with manslaughter with a weapon, based on section 776.032, Florida Statutes (2014), Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law. At the evidentiary hearing on the motion, the trial court applied the statutory burden of proof in effect at that time, which required the defendant to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that he or she was immune from prosecution. See Bretherick v. State, 170 So. 3d 766, 779 (Fla. 2015). Using that burden of proof, the trial court denied Catalano's motion.
Subsequently, the legislature amended section 776.032, placing the burden on the State to overcome a facially sufficient claim of self-defense immunity by clear and convincing evidence. See § 776.032(4), Fla. Stat. (2017). On appeal, this court reversed Catalano's judgment and sentence and remanded for a new immunity hearing under the amended statute in light of our holding in Martin v. State, 43 Fla. L. Weekly D1016, D1018 (Fla. 2d DCA May 4, 2018) (holding that the 2017 amendment is procedural in nature, applied retroactively, and warranted remand for a new immunity hearing), disapproved of by Love, 286 So. 3d at 190 (disapproving Martin's decision to order a new immunity hearing).
The State appealed our decision to the supreme court. On remand, we now conclude that Catalano is not entitled to a new immunity hearing because his immunity hearing occurred before the amended statute's effective date. Thus, it was not error for the trial court to have conducted the immunity hearing under the standard enunciated in Bretherick. See Love, 286 So. 3d at 190 ("Section 776.032(4) is a procedural change in the law and applies to all Stand Your Ground immunity hearings conducted on or after the statute's effective date."). Accordingly, we affirm Catalano's judgment and sentence.1
Affirmed.
MORRIS and ATKINSON, JJ., Concur.
1Catalano raised four additional claims in his appeal, which we found to be without merit in our earlier opinion. That decision was not challenged in the supreme court, and our rulings as to those claims remain unchanged.