Vennisee v. State

235 So. 3d 947
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedOctober 11, 2017
Docket3D16-1604
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 235 So. 3d 947 (Vennisee 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
Vennisee v. State, 235 So. 3d 947 (Fla. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

ROTHENBERG, C.J.

Jeffrey L. Vennisee (“Vennisee”) appeals the denial of his motion for postcon-viction relief. Vennisee, who was a juvenile when he committed a murder on December 10, 1978, was indicted for first-degree murder. On March 26,1979, Vennisee pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Vennisee contends that his sentence is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment and based on the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012), and the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Atwell v. State, 197 So.3d 1040 (Fla. 2016), and that he is entitled to a resentencing hearing and to be resentenced pursuant to chapter 2014-220, Laws of Florida, § 1. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court’s order denying Vennisee’s motion for postconviction relief.

The Evolving Juvenile Sentencing Case Law

In Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 125 S.Ct. 1183, 161 L.Ed.2d 1 (2005), the United'States Supreme Court held that a sentence of death for a crime committed by a juvenile violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Five years later, the United States Supreme Court addressed whether a life sentence without the possibility of parole imposed upon a juvenile who committed a non-homicide offense was also violative of the Eighth Amendment in Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 130 S.Ct. 2011, 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010).

Graham was sixteen when he committed an armed burglary and an attempted armed robbery. Based on a negotiated plea, Graham pled guilty to the charges, adjudication was withheld, and Graham was placed on probation. Less than six months after being released from custody, Graham, while still a juvenile, committed an armed home invasion robbery. Graham, 560 U.S. at 54-55, 130 S.Ct. 2011. After conducting a hearing, the trial court found that Graham had violated his probation, adjudicated him guilty of the prior armed burglary and attempted armed robbery, and imposed a sentence of life imprisonment for the armed burglary and a fifteen-year sentence for the attempted armed robbery. Id. at 57, 130 S.Ct. 2011. Because Florida had abolished the parole system, a life sentence provided no possibility of release absent the grant of executive clemency. See § 921.002(l)(c), Fla. Stat. (2003). The United States Supreme Court concluded that the life without the possibility for parole sentence that Graham received was akin to a death sentence in that the forfeiture of Graham’s life was irrevocable—that good behavior and character improvement were immaterial as he must remain in prison for the remainder of his life. Graham, 560 U.S. at 69-70, 130 S.Ct. 2011. Thus, the United States Supreme Court found that Graham’s life sentence violated the Eighth Amendment and reversed.

It' is important to note, however, that while the Graham Court held that a life sentence without the possibility for parole imposed upon a juvenile for a nonhomicide offense violates the Eighth Amendment, the Court did not require that the sentence imposed guarantee the juvenile offender’s ultimate release from incarceration. In fact, the Court stated the opposite.

A State is not required to guarantee eventual freedom to a juvenile offender convicted of a nonhomicide crime. What the State must do, however, is- give defendants like Graham some meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation. ... It bears emphasis, however, that while the Eighth Amendment, prohibits a State from imposing a life without parole sentence on a juvenile nonho-micide offender, it does not require the State to release that offender during his natural life. Those who commit truly horrifying crimes as juveniles may turn out to be irredeemable, and thus deserving of incarceration for the duration of their lives. The Eighth Amendment does not foreclose the possibility that persons convicted of nonhomicide crimes committed before adulthood will remain be: hind bars for life. It does prohibit States from making the judgment at the outset that those offenders never will be fit to reenter society.

Id. at 75,130 S.Ct. 2011.

Two years after addressing life sentences without the possibility of parole imposed upon juveniles who commit non-homicide offenses in Graham, the Court addressed the imposition of life without parole sentences imposed upon juveniles who commit homicide offenses in Miller. Although the United States Supreme Court did not prohibit life sentences for juveniles who commit homicide offenses, it held that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole which do not take into account the defendant’s “age and its hallmark features—among them, immaturity, impetuosity, and failure to appreciate risks and consequences,” are unconstitutional. Miller, 567 U.S. at 477, 132 S.Ct. 2455. “We therefore hold that the Eighth Amendment forbids a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without possibility of parole for juvenile offenders.” Milter, 567 U.S. at 479, 132 S.Ct. 2455. The Court, however, did not issue a categorical bar for life without parole sentences for juvenile offenders. “Because [our] holding is sufficient to decide these cases, we do not consider Jackson’s and Miller’s alternative argument- that the Eighth Amendment requires a categorical bar on life without parole for juveniles ..,. ” Id. at 479, 132 S.Ct. 2455.

Thus under Graham and Miller, no juvenile offender may be sentenced to a mandatory life sentence without the. possibility of parole, regardless of whether the offense is a homicide or a non-homicide offense. Another important decision was also made by the United States Supreme Court in Miller. Besides prohibiting mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole, the Court held that juvenile offenders are constitutionally entitled to individualized sentencing at which the judge or jury will have the opportunity to consider mitigating circumstances, including the offender’s age and the circumstances attendant to it, such as immaturity, impetuosity, and the failure .to appreciate the consequences. Miller, 567 U.S. at 476-77, 132 S.Ct. 2455.

In Falcon v. State, 162 So.3d 954, 962 (Fla. 2015), the Florida Supreme Court concluded that it was -patently unfair to treat similar juvenile offenders differently based solely on when their cases were decided-. Thus, the Court held that Graham and Miller must be applied retroactively to juvenile offenders’ sentences that were final when these decisions were issued.

Also in 2015, the Florida Supreme Court issued its opinion in Henry v. State, 175 So.3d 675, 680 (Fla. 2015), which' extended the Roper and Graham conclusion—that juvenile life without parole sentences for non-homicide offenses violates the Eighth Amendment—to term-of-years sentences that do not afford any meaningful opportu-■ nity to obtain release based on the offender’s demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.

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235 So. 3d 947, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vennisee-v-state-fladistctapp-2017.