WILLIE JOHNSON, A/K/A WILLIE WILLIAMS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Florida appellate court reversed a reimposed ten-year manslaughter sentence because the original plea bargain promised no prison time, requiring vacation of the judgment and remand to allow withdrawal of the guilty plea.
A trial court may correct an illegal suspended sentence, but when the original guilty plea was induced by a bargain assuring no imprisonment, the judgment and sentence must be vacated and the case remanded to permit withdrawal of the plea.
[1] When a guilty plea is induced by a bargain assuring no imprisonment, the judgment and sentence must be vacated and remanded to permit withdrawal of the plea, even if the…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“[I]t has been agreed that you will not have to go to prison at all.”
The trial court's statement to appellant at the time of adjudication regarding the plea bargain agreement.
Appellant was adjudged guilty of manslaughter in 1973 and initially received a suspended ten-year sentence based on a plea bargain with assurance of n…
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PER CURIAM.
Appellant was adjudged guilty of manslaughter on May 30, 1973, and was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment on September 26, 1975, At the time of adjudication, because of a plea bargain and appellant’s crippling injury by arresting officers, the trial court purported to suspend a sentence of ten years’ imprisonment and advised appellant, “[I]t has been agreed . that you will not have to go to prison at all.” More than two years later, after appellant committed a second homicide, amother judge of the same court reimposed a sentence of ten years’ imprisonment on the original conviction, prompting this appeal.
The original sentence could not lawfully be suspended. Bateh v. State, 101 So. 2d 869 (Fla.App.1st, 1958), cert. disch. 110 So. 2d 7 (Fla.1959). The court therefore had authority to correct the illegal sentence. Rule 3.800(a), R.Cr.P.; § 775.14, F. S.; Drayton v. State, 177 So. 2d 250 (Fla.App.3rd, 1965), cert. disch. 181 So. 2d 348 (Fla.1966). But because the adjudication on which the present ten year sentence rests was induced by a bargained plea on which appellant was assured that “you will not have to go to prison at all,” the spirit if not the letter of Rule 3.171, R.Cr.P., requires that the judgment and sentence be vacated and the case remanded to give appellant opportunity to withdraw the bargained plea of guilty to manslaughter. Cf. Thomas v. State, 327 So. 2d 63 (Fla.App.1st, 1976).
REVERSED.
MILLS, Acting C. J., SMITH, J., and AGNER, ROYCE, Associate Judge, concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Newberry v. State, 421 So. 2d 546 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982)…der the statute applicable prior to its amendment, and sentenced the appellant as an adult. With respect to this sentencing, the trial judge, having accepted a plea bargain, may not subsequently substantially alter that agreement. Johnson v. State, 332 So. 2d 362 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976); Odom v. State, 310 So. 2d 770 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975); Severino v. State, 286 So. 2d 234 (Fla. 2d DCA 1973). Therefore, with respect to the issue of the length of the sentence, we hereby reverse and remand with directions to the tria…
Authorities Cited
- State v. Mussa C. Bateh, 110 So. 2d 7 (Fla. 1959)
- Mussa C. Bateh v. State, 101 So. 2d 869 (Fla. 1st DCA 1958)
- Food Fair Stores S. Dade, Inc. v. Gregory, 177 So. 2d 250 (Fla. 3d DCA 1965)
- Thomas v. State, 327 So. 2d 63 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976)
- Drayton v. State, 181 So. 2d 348 (Fla. 1966)