In re Amendments to the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure-Rules 3.140 & 3.986

603 So. 2d 1144, 17 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 330, 1992 Fla. LEXIS 1039, 1992 WL 110901
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMay 28, 1992
DocketNo. 76676
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 603 So. 2d 1144 (In re Amendments to the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure-Rules 3.140 & 3.986) 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
In re Amendments to the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure-Rules 3.140 & 3.986, 603 So. 2d 1144, 17 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 330, 1992 Fla. LEXIS 1039, 1992 WL 110901 (Fla. 1992).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

The Sentencing Disposition Forms Committee, a special committee of the Criminal Section of the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges, was designated at the request of former Chief Justice Ehrlich to review all dispositional forms contained in the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure and make recommended changes. The Forms Committee submitted proposed amendments to Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure 3.140 and 3.986 for our consideration.1 The proposed changes were submitted to the Florida Criminal Procedure Rules Committee for review and were published for comment in The Florida Bar News.

The Forms Committee recommends that rule 3.140(c) be amended to require that the defendant’s race, gender, date of birth, and social security number be included on the information or indictment. After reviewing this proposal, the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee recommends that the rule be retained as it is currently written and suggests that the race, gender, date of birth, and social security number of the defendant should be located on the order of commitment.

The Rules Committee also expressed concerns with and recommended rejection of many of the proposed changes to rule 3.986. Therefore, the Rules Committee was asked to draft and submit its recommended amendments to rule 3.986. In ac-

cordance with this request, the Rules Committee has submitted amendments to the current judgment and sentence form as well as new form probation, community control and restitution orders.

We have considered the proposed changes submitted by the Sentencing Disposition Forms Committee, the newly submitted recommendations of the Rules Committee, as well as comments of interested parties. We adopt the appended amendments to rule 3.140(c) as submitted by the Forms Committee. However, we reject the Forms Committee’s proposed changes to rule 3.986 and adopt the appended amendments to rule 3.986 as submitted by the Rules Committee.

Rule 3.140(c)(4) is added to require that the defendant’s race, gender, date of birth, and social security number be included on the information or indictment. The amendment to rule 3.986(a) clarifies the requirement that forms used by trial courts should conform with those set forth in the rule and recognizes the potential for use of computer generated forms. It also applies the presumption of validity to probation, community control and restitution orders.

An amended judgment form is contained in subdivision (b). One of the amendments to the judgment form was made at the suggestion of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to assist in implementing section 943.325, Florida Statutes (1991), which requires DNA testing and analysis to be performed on blood samples taken from all persons convicted of violations of chapters 794 and 800, Florida Statutes. A form for charges, costs, and fees has been added as subdivision (c). The sentencing form has been amended and is now found in subdivision (d). New form probation, community control and restitution orders are found in subdivisions, (e), (f), and (g), respectively.

All gender-specific designations have been deleted from the forms. Deletions are indicated by use of struck-through type. New language is indicated by under[1146]*1146scoring. These amendments shall become effective upon the release of this opinion.

It is so ordered.

SHAW, C.J., and OVERTON, McDonald, barkett, grimes, KOGAN and HARDING, JJ., concur.

APPENDIX

RULE 3.140 INDICTMENTS; INFOR-MATIONS

(a) Methods of Prosecution.

(1) Capital Crimes. An offense which may be punished by death shall be prosecuted by indictment.

(2) Other Crimes. The prosecution of all other criminal offenses shall be as follows:

In circuit courts and county courts, prosecution shall be solely by indictment or information, except that prosecution in county courts for violations of municipal ordinances and metropolitan county ordinances may be by affidavit or docket entries and prosecutions for misdemeanors, municipal ordinances and county ordinances may be by Notice to Appear issued and served pursuant to Rule 3.125. A grand jury may indict for any offense. When a grand jury returns an indictment for an offense not triable in the circuit court, the circuit judge shall either issue a summons returnable in the county court, or shall bail the accused for trial in the county court, and such judge, or at his direction, the clerk of the circuit court shall certify the indictment and file same in the records of the county court.

(b) Nature of Indictment or Information. The indictment or information upon which the defendant is to be tried shall be a plain, concise and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged.

(c) Caption, Commencement, and Date, and Personal Statistics.

(1) Caption. No formal caption is essential to the validity of an indictment or information upon which the defendant is to be tried. Upon objection made as to its absence a caption shall be prefixed in substantially the following manner:

In the (name of Court)
State of Florida versus (name of defendant)

Any defect, error or omission in a caption may be amended as of course, at any stage of the proceeding, whether before or after a plea to the merits, by court order.

(2) Commencement. All indictments or informations upon which the defendant is to be tried shall expressly state that the prosecution is brought in the name and by the authority of the State of Florida. Indictments shall state that the defendant is charged by the grand jury of the county. Informations shall state that the appropriate prosecuting attorney makes the charge.

(3) Date. Every indictment or information on which the defendant is to be tried shall bear the date (day, month, year) that it is filed in each court in which it is so filed.

(4) Every indictment or information shall include the defendant’s race, gender, date of birth, and social security number when any of these facts are known. Failure to include these facts shall not invalidate an otherwise sufficient indictment.

(d)The Charge.

(1) Allegation of Facts; Citation of Law Violated. Each count of an indictment or information upon which the defendant is to be tried shall allege the essential facts constituting the offense charged. In addition, each count shall recite the official or customary citation of the statute, rule, regulation or other provision of law which the defendant is alleged to have violated. Error in or omission of the citation shall not be ground for dismissing the count or for a reversal of a conviction based thereon if the error or omission did not mislead the defendant to his prejudice.

(2) Name of Accused. The name of the accused person shall be stated, if known, and if not known, he may be described by any name of description by which he can be identified with reasonable certainty. If the grand jury, prosecuting attorney or affiant making the charge does not know either [1147]

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Bluebook (online)
603 So. 2d 1144, 17 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 330, 1992 Fla. LEXIS 1039, 1992 WL 110901, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-amendments-to-the-florida-rules-of-criminal-procedure-rules-3140-fla-1992.