Green v. State

765 So. 2d 910, 2000 Fla. App. LEXIS 10915, 2000 WL 1206372
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided August 25, 2000·No. No. 2D99-1719·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

FULMER, Acting Chief Judge.

In this appeal, James Green contends that he has been denied equal protection of the law because the sentencing guidelines provisions in sections 921.0011(7)(b) and 921.0014(l)(a), Florida Statutes (1997), which govern the scoring of victim injury points, treat male defendants differently than female defendants. Specifically, Green argues that adult male defendants who engage in sexual intercourse with a female victim under the age of sixteen are treated differently than adult female defendants who engage in sexual intercourse with a male victim under the age of sixteen in that adult male defendants are assessed eighty points for victim injury while adult female defendants are assessed only forty points. He further contends that these statutes are unconstitutionally vague because they have been applied in an arbitrary manner. We find no constitutional infirmity with the statutes and affirm.

As a result of having sexual intercourse with a female under the age of sixteen, Green was charged, pursuant to section 800.04(3)1 with committing an act defined [912] as sexual battery upon a child under the age of sixteen years. Green pleaded no contest. Because Green penetrated the victim, eighty additional points were added to the sentencing scoresheet pursuant to sections 921.0011(7)(b) and 921.0014(l)(a).2 In the trial court, Green argued that in a similar case pending for disposition in the same circuit, a female offender who had sexual intercourse with a male under the age of sixteen was to receive only forty points for sexual contact because the female did not penetrate the male. Green asked the trial court to treat him the same and score only forty points for contact, arguing that failure to do so would violate his right to equal protection of the law. The trial court denied his motion. Upon entry of his plea, Green reserved his right to appeal the trial court’s ruling on his equal protection challenge.

Green did not challenge the sentencing guidelines statutes on vagueness grounds in the trial court and, therefore, we decline to address the vagueness challenge he now makes for the first time on appeal. See Trushin v. State, 425 So.2d 1126 (Fla.1982)(constitutional application of a statute to a particular set of facts must first be raised at the trial level).

We begin our review of Green’s equal protection challenge by reiterating the long-standing doctrines that statutes are presumed to be constitutional and all reasonable doubts regarding the validity of a statute are to be resolved in favor of constitutionality. See State v. Kinner, 398 So.2d 1360 (Fla.1981); Gammon v. Cobb, 335 So.2d 261 (Fla.1976).

Section 921.0011(7) provides, in relevant part:

(a) “Victim injury” means the physical injury or death suffered by a person as a direct result of the primary offense, or any additional offense, for which an offender is convicted and which is pending before the court for sentencing at the time of the primary offense.
(b) Except as provided in paragraph (c) or paragraph (d),
1. If the conviction is for an offense involving sexual contact that includes sexual penetration, the sexual penetration must be scored in accordance with the sentence points provided under s. 921.0014 for sexual penetration, regardless of whether there is evidence of any physical injury.

Section 921.0014(l)(a) sets out the worksheets to be used in the computation of sentencing points and specifies the assessment of eighty points for sexual penetration and forty points for sexual contact.

Green argues on appeal that the term “sexual penetration” contained in these provisions is subject to arbitrary application based on the gender of the defendant because a male defendant is assessed eighty points for penetration for engaging in sexual intercourse while a female is assessed only forty points for engaging in sexual intercourse. Thus, Green argues, this disparity in the assessment of sentencing points constitutes a denial of equal protection of the law and violates the expressed principle of the Criminal Punishment Code that sentencing is neutral with respect to gender.3

As evidence of this disparate treatment, Grepn discussed, both in the trial court and in his brief on appeal, general facts regarding another pending case in which a female teacher, who was prosecuted for having sexual intercourse with a boy under the age of sixteen, was assessed only forty victim injury points for contact [913] and consequently faced a shorter sentence than Green received. We are unable to consider any of the facts of that case because the trial court did not take judicial notice of the case and, therefore, it is not part of the record before this court. This omission from the record is not fatal to our review because our review of Green’s challenge is one of statutory interpretation. The challenge Green raises presupposes that the statutes should be interpreted to require that in order for penetration points to be scored, the victim must be the person penetrated. We do not agree with Green’s interpretation.

The Legislature proscribed the crime of sexual battery in section 794.011(l)(h), which is the offense that both men and women commit when they have sexual intercourse with a child under the age of sixteen. Both males and females are subject to prosecution under this provision. The various ways that a sexual battery can be committed is discussed in detail in Richards v. State, 738 So.2d 415 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999). As we explained in Richards:

The statute prohibits:

(1) “Oral, anal, or vaginal penetration by the sexual organ of another.” Translation: It is illegal for a man to place his penis inside the mouth, anus, or vagina of a victim.
(2) “Oral, anal, or vaginal union with the sexual organ of- [the defendant].” Translation: It is illegal for a man to touch the mouth, anus or vagina of the victim with his penis, and it is illegal for a woman to touch the mouth, anus or vagina of the victim with her “sexual organ.”
(3) “Oral, anal, or vaginal union with the sexual organ of [the victim].” Translation: It is illegal for a man to touch the sexual organ of the victim with his mouth or anus, and it is illegal for a woman to touch the sexual organ of the victim with her mouth, anus, or vagina.
(4)“The anal or vaginal penetration of another by any other object.” Translation: It is illegal for a man or a woman to place any object inside the anus or vagina of the victim.

738 So.2d at 417-18 (emphasis added).

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Green v. State, 765 So. 2d 910, 2000 Fla. App. LEXIS 10915, 2000 WL 1206372 (Fla. Ct. App. 2000).

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