Slaughter v. State

538 So. 2d 509, 1989 WL 6463
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedFebruary 1, 1989
Docket88-262
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 538 So. 2d 509 (Slaughter 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
Slaughter v. State, 538 So. 2d 509, 1989 WL 6463 (Fla. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

538 So.2d 509 (1989)

Thomas Wayne SLAUGHTER, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 88-262.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

February 1, 1989.

*510 Michael E. Allen, Public Defender, Maria Ines Suber, Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., A.E. Pooser, IV, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

NIMMONS, Judge.

Appellant was convicted, pursuant to trial by jury, of the following seven crimes upon his 14-year-old daughter:

Counts II, III and IV — sexual battery by force not likely to cause serious personal injury (Section 794.011(5), Florida Statutes (1985)).
Counts V and VI — engaging in sexual activity with child 12 to 18 years old by person in familial or custodial authority (Section 794.041(2)(b), Florida Statutes (1985)).
Count VII — aggravated battery with deadly weapon (knife) (Section 784.045(1)(b), Florida Statutes (1985)).
Count VIII — incest (Section 826.04, Florida Statutes (1985)).

Appellant asserts error by the trial court in denying his motion to dismiss Counts III, IV, VI, VII and VIII. The charges contained in these counts were either added or upgraded from the original charges after a mistrial was declared at the first trial when the jury became deadlocked. Appellant claims that the state failed to establish that prosecutorial vindictiveness was not involved in the filing of such additional or enhanced charges. The state argues that the doctrine of prosecutorial vindictiveness announced in Blackledge v. Perry, 417 U.S. 21, 94 S.Ct. 2098, 40 L.Ed.2d 628 (1974), should not apply to a situation such as this where the charging document is amended after a mistrial precipitated by a hung jury. The Florida Supreme Court has recently resolved this very issue in favor of the state's position in State v. Wilkins, 534 So.2d 705 (Fla. 1988). We therefore affirm on this issue.

On the Williams Rule[1] issue, we affirm on the authority of Heuring v. State, 513 So.2d 122 (Fla. 1987).

Appellant next claims that the trial court erred in imposing multiple punishments for the commission of crimes which were grounded upon only one act. He asserts that as a result of one act, he was convicted and sentenced for (1) sexual battery per vaginal intercourse (Count II); (2) sexual activity per vaginal intercourse by person in familial authority (Count V); and (3) incest[2] (Count VIII). Likewise, he asserts that as a result of another single act, he *511 was convicted and sentenced for (1) sexual battery per oral penetration by defendant's penis (Count IV); and (2) sexual activity per oral penetration by defendant's penis by person in familial authority (Count VI). Appellant claims that such multiple punishments for single acts is contrary to the Florida Supreme Court's holding in Carawan v. State, 515 So.2d 161 (Fla. 1987).[3]

First of all, it is important to note that the victim testified that, during the subject sexual episode which occurred in August, 1985, the appellant committed two discrete acts of vaginal intercourse upon his daughter. Carawan is therefore no impediment to separate convictions and sentences for each of those attacks as charged in Counts II and V.[4] This does not, however, determine the issue as to the incest count which we discuss later in this opinion.

We now turn to a Carawan analysis of Counts IV (oral sexual battery) and VI (oral sexual activity by person in familial authority) inasmuch as the subject statutes — and the laws enacting them — do not contain any express statement of intent. We therefore apply the Blockburger[5] test as the starting point for determining legislative intent, a test which asks whether each crime has an element which the other does not, without regard to the accusatory pleadings or the proof adduced at trial. Blockburger, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed. 306; Carawan, 515 So.2d at 167. It is quite clear that such test is satisfied, for the crime of sexual battery under Section 794.011(5) requires the use of physical force and violence which is not an element of the crime of engaging in sexual activity by a person in familial authority under Section 794.041(2)(b); and the latter crime requires as an element that the offender be in familial authority over the victim, which is not a requirement of Section 794.011(5).

The presumption therefore arises that multiple punishments are permissible. As stated in Carawan:

[I]f each offense indeed requires proof of a fact that the other does not, the court then must find that the offenses in question are separate, and multiple punishments are presumed to be authorized in the absence of a contrary legislative intent or any reasonable basis for concluding that a contrary intent existed.
On the other hand, where there is a basis for concluding that the legislature intended a result contrary to that achieved by the Blockburger test, a conflict arises that requires resort to the third rule of construction applicable to this problem, the rule of lenity. (emphasis in original)

515 So.2d at 168. We are of the view that the rule of lenity does not come into play because we can find no basis for a legislative intent contrary to the Blockburger presumption that multiple punishments are permissible.

Under the Carawan analysis, the determination of whether there is any reasonable basis for concluding that there exists an intent contrary to the Blockburger presumption seems to turn heavily on whether the two offenses address essentially the same evil. 515 So.2d at 168.

The evil which is addressed in Section 794.011(5) as well as throughout the other portions of Section 794.011 is the nonconsensual or forcible nature of the proscribed sexual acts, at least with respect to victims over 12 years of age. On the other hand, although the term "sexual activity" under Section 794.041 is defined the same as the *512 term "sexual battery" under 794.011, Section 794.041 seems not to be concerned at all with the forcible nature of the sexual acts but rather seeks to isolate for special sanction those who commit sexual acts upon persons over whom the offender stands in a position of familial or custodial authority. One might assert that this observation is no more than a restatement of the Blockburger analysis. That may be so, but what such analysis does, at least in this instance, is to reveal, through close examination of the elements of the two crimes, the separate evils which the legislature apparently sought to address in the two statutes.

Further, prior to 1984, the following subsection appeared in Section 794.011:

(4) A person who commits sexual battery upon a person over the age of 11 years, without that person's consent, under any of the following circumstances shall be guilty of a felony of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084:
* * * * * *
(e) When the victim is older than 11 but less than 18 years of age and the offender is in a position of familial, custodial, or official authority over the victim and uses this authority to coerce the victim to submit.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
538 So. 2d 509, 1989 WL 6463, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slaughter-v-state-fladistctapp-1989.