Henry v. State

175 So. 3d 675, 2015 WL 1239696
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMarch 19, 2015
DocketNo. SC12-578
StatusPublished
Cited by139 cases

This text of 175 So. 3d 675 (Henry v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henry v. State, 175 So. 3d 675, 2015 WL 1239696 (Fla. 2015).

Opinion

PERRY, J.

We have for review the Fifth District Court of Appeal’s decision in Henry v. State, 82 So.3d 1084 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012), holding that Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 130 S.Ct. 2011, 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010), does not apply to term-of-years prison sentences because such sentences do not constitute life imprisonment. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. Because we find that Graham does apply and- that the' sentence at issue' will not provide a meaningful opportunity for release, we quash the decision below and remand for resentencing consistent with our rationale provided below.

BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

When he was seventeen years old, Leighdon Henry was tried as an, adult and convicted for committing multiple nonho-micide offenses, including three counts of sexual battery while possessing a weapon, two counts of robbery, one count of kidnapping, one count of carjacking, . one count of burglary of a dwelling, and one count of possession of marijuana. The trial court sentenced Henry to life for the sexual battery offenses, plus an additional sixty years’ imprisonment for the remaining offenses, to run consecutively. Henry was thus sentenced to life plus sixty years’ imprisonment. Henry appealed.

During the pendency of Henry’s appeal, the United States Supreme Court issued its Graham decision. Thereafter, Henry filed a motion pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b)(2) predicated on the Graham holding. The trial court granted the rule 3.800(b)(2) motion, in part, and resentenced Henry to concurrent thirty-year sentences for the sexual batteries; the remaining sentences were to run consecutively. Henry was thus sentenced to ninety years’ imprisonment. The Fifth District affirmed Henry’s convictions and revised sentences, concluding that “Henry’s aggregate term-of-years sentence is not invalid under the Eighth Amendment. ...” Henry 82 So.3d at 1089.

ANALYSIS

Standard of Review

The review of-a decision of a district court of appeal construing a provision of' the state or federal constitution concerns a pure question of law that is subject to de novo review. Crist v. Fla. Ass’n of [677]*677Criminal Def. Lawyers, Inc., 978 So.2d 134, 139 (Fla.2008) (citing Fla. Dep’t of Revenue v. City of Gainesville, 918 So.2d 250, 256 (Fla.2005); Zingale v. Powell, 885 So.2d 277, 280 (Fla.2004)).

Merits

In Graham, the Supreme Court: conducted a thorough examination of the constitutional requirements for states that subject juvenile nonhomicide offenders to terms of life imprisonment as if these offenders had been adults when they committed their offenses. After careful consideration of the overall issue, the Graham Court concluded and repeatedly emphasized that because of their immaturity and underdeveloped sense of responsibility, juveniles are more vulnerable or negatively influenced by external forces than are adults. Graham, 560 U.S. at 67-68, 130 S.Ct. 2011 (citing Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 125 S.Ct. 1183, 161 L.Ed.2d 1 (2005)). The Supreme Court further determined that juveniles constitute a category of offenders that are not as capable of engaging in conduct that is as “morally reprehensible” as adults and, therefore, cannot be reliably “classified among the worst offenders.” Id. at 68 (quoting Roper, 543 U.S. at 569, 125 S.Ct. 1183; Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815, 835, 108 S.Ct. 2687, 101 L.Ed.2d 702 (1988) (plurality opinion)). In addition, the Supreme Court held that juveniles possess a greater potential for change or positive character growth than adults. Id. (citing Roper, 543 U.S. at 570, 125 S.Ct. 1183).

Building upon its prior precedent that explicitly emphasized the special status of juvenile offenders for purposes of criminal punishment, in Miller v. Alabama, — U.S.-, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012), the Supreme Court stated in no uncertain terms that it is the offenders’ juvenile status that implicates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Miller, 132 S.Ct. at 2464 (“To start with the first set of cases: Roper and Graham establish that children are constitutionally different from, adults for purposes of sentencing. Because juveniles have diminished culpability and greater prospects for reform, we explained, ‘they are less deserving of the most severe punishments.’ ” (quoting Graham, 560 U.S. at 68, 130 S.Ct. 2011)); Id. at 2465 (“Most fundamentally, Graham insists that youth matters in determining the appropriateness of a lifetime of incarceration without the possibility of parole. In the circumstances there, juvenile status precluded a life-without-parole sentence, even though an adult could receive it for a similar crime.”); Id. at 2469 (“By making youth (and all that accompanies it) irrelevant to imposition of that harshest prison sentence, such a scheme poses too great a risk of disproportionate punishment.... But given - all we have said in Roper, Graham, and this decision about children’s diminished culpability and heightened capacity for change, we think appropriate occasions Tor sentencing juveniles to this harshest possible penalty will be uncommon.”); Id. at 2466 (“But the mandatory penalty schemes at issue here prevent the sentencer from taking account of these central considerations .... That contravenes Graham’s (and also Roper’s) foundational principle: that imposition of a State’s most severe penalties on juvenile offenders cannot proceed as though they were not children.”).

The Court concluded that the status of juvenile offenders warrants different considerations by the states whenever such offenders face criminal punishment as if they are adults. See, e.g., Roper, 543 U.S. at 553, 125 S.Ct. 1183 (“Three general differences between juveniles under 18 and adults demonstrate that juvenile offenders cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders. Juveniles’- suscepti[678]*678bility to immature and irresponsible behavior means ‘their irresponsible conduct is not as morally reprehensible as that of an adult.’ [Thompson, 487 U.S. at 885, 108 S.Ct. 2687]. Their own vulnerability and comparative lack of control over their immediate surroundings mean juveniles have a greater claim than adults .to be forgiven for failing to escape negative influences in their whole environment. See [Stanford v. Kentucky, 492 U.S. 361, 395, 109 S.Ct. 2969, 106 L.Ed.2d 306 (1989) (Brenan, J., dissenting), abrogated by Roper, 543 U.S. at 551, 125 S.Ct. 1183]. The reality that juveniles still struggle to define their identity means it is less supportable to conclude that even a heinous crime committed by a juvenile is evidence of irretrievably depraved character. The Thompson plurality recognized the import of these characteristics with respect to juveniles under 16. 487 U.S. at 833-38, 108 S.Ct. 2687. The same reasoning applies to all juvenile offenders under 18. Once juveniles’ diminished culpability is recognized, it is evident that neither of the two penological justifications for the death penalty — retribution and deterrence of capital crimes by prospective offenders, e.g., [Atkins v. Virginia,

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Bluebook (online)
175 So. 3d 675, 2015 WL 1239696, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henry-v-state-fla-2015.