STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
ROOSEVELT ALLEN, LARRY W. EDWARDS, RANDY HEATH, ELMORE L. HENDERSON, WALLACE REED, WILLIE SINGLETARY AND HERMAN CRUSE, APPELLEES
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Florida's Supreme Court reversed a trial judge's dismissal of theft charges under the revised Section 812.014(1), holding that the statute is neither unconstitutionally vague nor lacking in the element of specific criminal intent despite the legislature's deletion of the word "unlawful" from the prior larceny statute.
The statute is constitutional. The deletion of "unlawful" does not eliminate specific criminal intent as an element of theft; it merely returns to the law as it existed before 1975, when courts for 24 years recognized specific criminal intent as a necessary element despite the lack of an express "unlawful" directive. The term "endeavors" is not impermissibly vague, meaning an overt act manifesting criminal intent rather than mere formulation of mental intent.
[1] The omission of the word "unlawful" from a theft statute does not eliminate the requirement of specific criminal intent, especially when prior jurisprudence recognized su…
[2] The term "endeavors" in a theft statute refers to an overt act manifesting criminal intent, not merely the formation of a mental intent.
Previewing 2 of 3 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“We find no evidence to support the notion that the 1977 legislature intended by its omission of the word "unlawful" to eliminate specific criminal intent as an element of this offense.”
Establishes that deletion of "unlawful" does not eliminate the specific intent requirement.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAppellees were charged with various theft offenses under Florida's revised theft statute, Section 812.014(1). The trial judge granted their motions to…
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PER CURIAM.
By consolidated appeals from the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, we are asked to review substantially identical orders which passed upon the constitutionality of Florida’s theft statute, Section 812.-014(1), Florida Statutes (1977).1 The trial judge, in granting appellees’ motions to dismiss the informations charging them with various offenses under that provision, concluded that the legislature’s revision of the statute to encompass other activities2 left it worded in such a way as to render it unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. We reverse.
Section 812.014(1) provides:
“A person is guilty of theft if he obtains or uses, or endeavors to obtain or to use, the property of another with intent:
(a) To deprive the other person of a right to the property or a benefit therefrom.
(b) To appropriate the property to his own use or to the use of any person not entitled thereto.”
The trial judge found two features of the statute to be fatally defective. First, noting that the predecessor larceny statute specifically proscribed commission of the offense “with unlawful intent,”3 she ruled that the legislature’s deletion of the word “unlawful” in this revised provision had the effect of eliminating the element of specific criminal intent, thereby contravening the requirements of due process. Second, she found that the term “endeavors” as used in Section 812.014(1) was impermissibly vague.
We find no evidence to support the notion that the 1977 legislature intended by its omission of the word “unlawful” to eliminate specific criminal intent as an element of this offense.4 At best, the deletion of that term signifies a return to the state of the law existing before 1975, when the immediate predecessor to Section 812.014(1) took effect.5 For 24 years prior to that time, the jurisprudence of this state recognized the element of specific criminal intent as a necessary requisite to a larceny conviction, notwithstanding that the larceny statute during that period, as now, lacked an express directive that the intent be “unlawful.”6 As regards the asserted vagueness of the statute, it is obvious that the term “endeavors” means an overt act manifesting criminal intent, rather than merely the formulation of a mental intent. The trial court’s construction of the statute to the contrary is unduly technical.
The orders of the trial court, dismissing the informations against appellees, are reversed, and these cases are remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
ENGLAND, C. J., and ADKINS, BOYD, OVERTON, HATCHETT and ALDERMAN, JJ., concur. . We have jurisdiction by virtue of Article V, Section 3(b)(1), Florida Constitution.
. Section 812.014(1) was enacted by the 1977 legislature as part of the overall revision of the criminal statutes relating to theft and stolen property. Ch. 77-342, § 4, Laws of Fla. As indicated by its title, the Florida Anti-Fencing Act (Section 812.005, Florida Statutes (1977)), one object of this legislation was to expand the larceny statute to reach “fencing” of stolen goods and attempted larceny.
. § 812.021(1), Fla.Stat. (1975). This section was repealed simultaneously with the enactment of the present statute. Ch. 77-342, § 16, Laws of Fla. . This resolution obviates consideration of whether this statute involves constitutionally protected expression and is thus subject to challenge on the basis of asserted overbreadth. See, e. g., State v. Bales, 343 So. 2d 9 (Fla. 1977).
. Ch. 74-383, §§ 40 and 67, Laws of Fla. . Compare § 811.021(1), Fla.Stat. (1951) with § 812.021(1), Fla.Stat. (Supp.1974).
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Chestnut v. State, 538 So. 2d 820 (Fla. 1989)…he application of diminished capacity could result in an absolute acquittal of any crime whatsoever. This is so because the only necessarily lesser included offense of robbery is petit theft and that, too, is a specific intent crime. State v. Allen, 362 So. 2d 10 (Fla.1978). Apparently, the same would be true for battery, Mellins v. State, 395 So. 2d 1207 (Fla. 4th DCA), review denied, 402 So. 2d 613 (Fla.1981). Since burglary is also a specific intent crime, Presley v. State, 388 So. 2d 1385 (Fla. 2d DCA 19…
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Dunnigan v. State, 364 So. 2d 1217 (Fla. 1978)…PER CURIAM. The order of the trial judge upholding the constitutional validity of Section 812.014, Florida Statutes (1977), is affirmed. See State v. Allen, 362 So. 2d 10 (Fla.1978). Appellant also raises on appeal two additional points regarding the asserted unconstitutionality of the theft statutes which were not presented in State v. Allen, supra. He contends that the definitional provisions of Section 812.012(2)…
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State v. Monty Ray Belgrave and Stephen Roger Smith, 364 So. 2d 1225 (Fla. 1978)…12.014, Florida Statutes (1977), “is unconstitutionally overbroad in scope in that it does not require proof of criminal intent.” We have recently rejected the contention that Section 812.014 is unconstitutionally vague or overbroad. State v. Allen, 362 So. 2d 10 (Fla.1978); Dunnigan v. State, 364 So. 2d 1217 (Fla.1978). An additional point raised by appellees in their motion to dismiss that was not expressly ruled upon by the trial judge and has not previously been addressed by this Court is that Section 8…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- State v. Bales, 343 So. 2d 9 (Fla. 1977)