Hightower v. State

488 So. 2d 106, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 975
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 24, 1986
Docket85-453
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 488 So. 2d 106 (Hightower v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hightower v. State, 488 So. 2d 106, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 975 (Fla. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

488 So.2d 106 (1986)

James Horace HIGHTOWER, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 85-453.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

April 24, 1986.

James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Nancye Crouch, Asst. Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for appellant.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and W. Brian Bayly, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

PER CURIAM.

Pursuant to the appellant's motion for rehearing in accordance with Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.331(c), we have considered this case en banc. We vacate our prior per curiam panel decision filed herein on January 2, 1986, and substitute therefor the following opinion:

In this case the defendant, Hightower, was indicted for sexual battery of a child of six pursuant to section 794.011(2), Florida Statutes (1983).[1] At trial the defendant specifically objected to an instruction and verdict form on lewd and lascivious conduct *107 pursuant to section 800.04, Florida Statutes (1983),[2] as a lesser included offense. The defendant pointed out that lewd and lascivious conduct was not listed in the Schedule of Lesser Included Offenses, Florida Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases (1981 ed.), as either a category one (necessary) or category two (permissive) lesser offense of sexual battery under section 794.011(2). Case law is abundantly clear that lewd and lascivious conduct in section 800.04, as the statute read prior to its amendment in 1984,[3] was not a necessarily lesser included offense of sexual battery (formerly rape) committed against a child of eleven or younger. See Ray v. State, 403 So.2d 956 (Fla. 1981); State v. Sumner, 157 Fla. 371, 26 So.2d 336 (1946); Walker v. State, 464 So.2d 1325 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985); Harrielson v. State, 441 So.2d 691 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983). Nevertheless, the trial court instructed on section 800.04 and, as fate would have it, the jury convicted of that offense.

On appeal, Hightower contends he cannot be convicted of an offense with which he was not charged. The state argues that the legislature intended lewd and lascivious conduct to be a necessarily lesser included offense of sexual battery, as shown by the amendment to section 800.04 in 1984, which was prompted by the opinion of the Third District Court of Appeal in Lanier v. State, 443 So.2d 178 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983). The preamble to that amendment, Chapter 84-86, Laws of Florida, provides:

WHEREAS, the District Court of Appeal, Third District, held in the case of Lanier v. State, 443 So.2d 178 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983) that the statute prohibiting lewd and lascivious conduct with children under the age of 14 years did not prohibit acts of sexual intercourse between an adult and an unchaste, consenting child, and
WHEREAS, the District Court of Appeal additionally took the view that, where the victim is younger than 14 years of age but not younger than 12 years of age, the victim's consent was a defense to the crime of lewd and lascivious handling, fondling, or assault of a child, and WHEREAS, the intent of the Legislature was and remains to prohibit lewd and lascivious acts upon children, including sexual intercourse and other acts defined as sexual battery, without regard either to the victim's consent or the victim's prior chastity, ...

The Lanier case was reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court, via a certified question, in State v. Lanier, 464 So.2d 1192 (Fla. 1985). Therein, the Florida Supreme Court held that a defendant charged with unlawfully handling, fondling or assaulting a twelve-year-old girl by "engaging in sexual intercourse" could be convicted of violating section 800.04, Florida Statutes (1981), even where the facts reveal lack of chastity and consent. The 1981 statute and the 1983 statute are the same. The court said:

We must apply section 800.04 as it existed at the time the allegedly lewd and lascivious acts occurred, prior to the enactment of the amendment. Further, we are not bound by statements of legislative intent uttered subsequent to either the enactment of a statute or the actions which allegedly violate the statute. However, we will show great deference to such statements, especially in a case such as this, when the enactment of an *108 amendment to a statute is passed merely to clarify existing law. Cf. Williams v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co., 382 So.2d 1216, 1220 (Fla. 1980). (An amendment to a statute clarifying the scope of underinsured motorist insurance coverage did not alter the scope of such coverage as it existed prior to the enactment of the amendment because the amendment merely served to clarify the extent of coverage as it previously existed.)
Therefore, we hold that section 800.04 both prior to and subsequent to the 1984 amendment is violated when a male engages in sexual intercourse with a twelve-year-old girl despite the fact that the victim was previously unchaste and the sexual intercourse was consensual.

Id. at 1193.

The Lanier opinion deals with consensual intercourse with an unchaste twelve-year-old, and holds that such intercourse — which was not a sexual battery under extant statutes — could constitute lewd handling or fondling under section 800.04, even before the 1984 amendment. But the fallacy of the state's argument in the instant case is that such intercourse with a child under twelve would constitute sexual battery — and, therefore, by definition, could not be lewd and lascivious conduct under section 800.04. The Lanier opinion does not recede from Ray or Sumner.

For the foregoing reasons, it is clear that the state's argument in regard to a necessarily lesser included offense must fail. Nor can the state sustain the conviction as one for a "permissive lesser offense." That concept is an aberration of law peculiar to the State of Florida which has caused enormous confusion[4] and was incepted by an analysis of lesser offenses and jury instructions in Brown v. State, 206 So.2d 377 (Fla. 1968). In an opinion by Justice Thornal, the court undertook to define applicable rules for the guidance of Florida courts in respect to lesser included offenses. The court first noted that, pursuant to statutory law, crimes were divisible into four categories or situations with distinguishing characteristics:

(1) Crimes divisible into degrees.
(2) Attempts to commit offenses.
(3) Offenses necessarily included in the offense charged.
(4) Offenses which may or may not be included in the offense charged, depending on the accusatory pleading and the evidence. (Emphasis in original.)

Id. at 381.

After discussing the first three categories, the opinion then analyzed "offenses which may be included," the fourth category:

(4) OFFENSES WHICH MAY BE INCLUDED. Section 919.16, makes provision for offenses which are necessarily included in the offense charged. It is applicable to that group of offenses which includes lesser offenses as essential elements. This suggests a further type of "lesser included" situation.[[5]] This fourth category comprehends those offenses which may or may not be included in the offense charged, depending upon, (a) the accusatory pleading, and (b) the evidence at the trial.

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Related

State v. Hightower
509 So. 2d 1078 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1987)
Young v. State
506 So. 2d 13 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1987)
O'BRIGHT v. State
508 So. 2d 385 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1987)
Caulder v. State
500 So. 2d 1362 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1986)
Gaffney v. State
497 So. 2d 1292 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1986)

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Bluebook (online)
488 So. 2d 106, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 975, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hightower-v-state-fladistctapp-1986.