Salters v. State

758 So. 2d 667, 2000 WL 581696
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMay 11, 2000
DocketSC95663
StatusPublished
Cited by88 cases

This text of 758 So. 2d 667 (Salters 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
Salters v. State, 758 So. 2d 667, 2000 WL 581696 (Fla. 2000).

Opinion

758 So.2d 667 (2000)

Leo SALTERS, Petitioner,
v.
STATE of Florida, Respondent.

No. SC95663.

Supreme Court of Florida.

May 11, 2000.

Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Marcy K. Allen, Assistant Public Defender, Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Petitioner.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Celia Terenzio, Bureau Chief, and Gentry Denise Benjamin, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Respondent.

PER CURIAM.

We have for review Salters v. State, 731 So.2d 826 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999), in which the Fourth District Court of Appeal certified conflict with the Second District Court of Appeal's decision in Thompson v. State, 708 So.2d 315 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998), approved, 750 So.2d 643 (Fla.1999), regarding the class of persons having standing to challenge a violent career criminal sentence on the basis that chapter 95-182, Laws of Florida, violates the single subject rule contained in article III, section 6 of the Florida Constitution. We have jurisdiction. See Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. As explained in more detail below, we quash that portion of the decision below that affirmed Salters' violent career criminal sentence.

*668 I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY IN THIS CASE

On May 15, 1997, the State of Florida (the State) filed an information charging Leo Salters (Salters)[1] with strong-arm robbery in connection with the removal of eight bottles of Pepto-Bismol from a Winn Dixie Store, with such offense occurring on April 27, 1997. Salters' case proceeded to trial in July 1997, and the jury found him guilty as charged.[2] The trial court adjudicated Salters guilty and deferred sentencing to a later date.

Prior to sentencing, the State filed a request that the trial court, pursuant to section 775.084, Florida Statutes (Supp. 1996), declare Salters to be a habitual felony offender, a habitual violent felony offender, or a violent career criminal. According to the guidelines scoresheet prepared in Salters' case, the sentencing range for the offense would have been from twenty-seven to forty-five months in prison. However, after conducting a sentencing hearing on August 15, 1997, the trial court sentenced Salters as a violent career criminal to thirty-five years in prison with a thirty-year mandatory minimum term pursuant to section 775.084(c), Florida Statutes (Supp.1996).[3] Salters filed a timely motion to correct sentencing error pursuant to rule 3.800(b) of the Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure (1997), arguing that the State had failed to prove that Salters qualified to be sentenced as a violent career criminal, but the trial court denied that motion. Salters appealed.

On appeal, the Fourth District affirmed Salters' conviction for strong-arm robbery. See Salters, 731 So.2d at 826. The Fourth District also affirmed Salters' violent career criminal sentence, stating, "We hold that appellant's opportunity to challenge his sentence, based upon the constitutionality of the statute, ended on October 1, 1996. Consequently, appellant lacked standing to challenge this issue, since his offenses occurred on April 27, 1997." Id. (citing State v. Johnson, 616 So.2d 1, 2 (Fla.1993), and Scott v. State, 721 So.2d 1245 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998)).[4] In *669 so holding, the Fourth District certified conflict with the Second District's decision in Thompson regarding the close of the window period, and that certified conflict is now before us for consideration.[5]

II. WINDOW PERIOD ANALYSIS

In State v. Thompson, 750 So.2d 643, 649 (Fla.1999), we held chapter 95-182, Laws of Florida, to be unconstitutional as violative of the single subject rule contained in article III, section 6 of the Florida Constitution. Prior to announcing that holding, however, we noted the conflict between the Second District's decision in Thompson and the Fourth District's decision in Salters as to when the window period closed for persons claiming a violent career criminal sentence to be invalid due to the amendments made by chapter 95-182. See Thompson, 750 So.2d at 646. As noted in Thompson, see id., the Salters court apparently accepted an argument discussed by the Fourth District in Scott, in which the State argued that the Legislature's enactment of chapter 96-388, Laws of Florida, portions of which became effective on October 1, 1996, cured any alleged single subject rule problems in chapter 95-182. See Scott, 721 So.2d at 1246 n. 1. We declined to make a determination in Thompson regarding the close of the window period because the defendant in that case had standing to raise a single subject rule challenge even if the window period closed on October 1, 1996, as determined by the Fourth District in Salters. See Thompson, 750 So.2d at 646. It is clear in this case, however, that Salters would not have standing to challenge chapter 95-182 on single subject rule grounds if the window period for raising such a challenge closed on October 1, 1996, and we therefore must determine the window period issue here. In determining this issue, we consider this Court's prior decisions in the single subject rule context, the contents of chapter 96-388, Laws of Florida, as well as the arguments asserted by the parties in Thompson[6] and this case.

In Loxahatchee River Environmental Control District v. School Board of Palm Beach County, 515 So.2d 217 (Fla. 1987), this Court explained how laws that violate the single subject rule generally are "cured":

At every odd-year regular session, the legislature, as part of its program of continuing revision, adopts the laws passed in the preceding odd year as official statute laws and directs that they take effect immediately under the title of "Florida Statutes" dated the current year. In Santos v. State, 380 So.2d 1284 (Fla.1980), this Court held that when laws passed by the legislature are adopted and codified in this manner, the restrictions of article III, section 6, pertaining to one subject matter and notice in the title no longer apply. Accord *670 State v. Combs, 388 So.2d 1029 (Fla. 1980)....
. . . .
... A law passed in violation of the requirements of article III, section 6, is invalid until such time as it is reenacted for codification into the Florida Statutes. See Thompson v. Intercounty Tel. & Tel. Co., 62 So.2d 16 (Fla.1952).

Loxahatchee, 515 So.2d at 218-19 (emphasis added) (footnote omitted); see also Johnson, 616 So.2d at 2. The Preface to the official Florida Statutes illustrates how the biennial adoption process works. Linda S. Jessen, Preface to Florida Statutes at vi (1999); see also Loxahatchee, 515 So.2d at 218 n. *. In essence, the Preface explains that, during the biennial adoption process, the Legislature amends sections 11.2421, 11.2422, 11.2424, and 11.2425, Florida Statutes, to prospectively adopt as the official statutory law of Florida those portions of the statutes that are carried forward from the preceding regular edition of the Florida Statutes. Thus, it is clear that the general rule for "curing" laws that violate the single subject rule is through the biennial adoption process.

Without discussing the general rule, this Court essentially recognized an exception to that rule in Martinez v. Scanlan, 582 So.2d 1167 (Fla.1991).

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758 So. 2d 667, 2000 WL 581696, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/salters-v-state-fla-2000.