Ferenc v. State

Decision Date12 April 1990
Docket NumberNo. 89-1951,89-1951
Citation563 So.2d 707
Parties15 Fla. L. Weekly D938 John Michael FERENC, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

John Michael Ferenc, pro se.

No Appearance for appellee.

SHIVERS, Chief Judge.

Appellant, John Michael Ferenc, appeals the trial court's summary denial of his motion for correction, reduction, or modification of sentence. We affirm for the reasons set out below.

The record on appeal indicates that appellant was convicted in August 1983 of attempted armed burglary, carrying a concealed firearm, and possession of burglary tools, all alleged to have occurred during an attempt to burglarize a house in Pensacola on March 2, 1983. Appellant was then sentenced to consecutive terms of 15, 5, and 5 years. His conviction on all three counts was affirmed by this court in Ferenc v. State, 455 So.2d 432 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). In November 1986, appellant filed a motion for post-conviction relief pursuant to Rule 3.850, Fla.R.Crim.P., raising five grounds. The trial court summarily denied the petition, and this court affirmed the denial in Ferenc v. State, 515 So.2d 751 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987).

In February 1989, appellant filed the instant motion for correction, reduction, or modification of sentence, pursuant to Rule 3.800, Fla.R.Crim.P., alleging that his conviction and sentence for all three offenses violated the prohibition against double jeopardy, and asking the trial court to correct his illegal sentence by reducing it from 25 to 15 years for the attempted armed burglary count only. The trial court summarily denied this motion as well, without stating its reason for so doing.

Although double jeopardy arguments are frequently raised as challenges to both conviction and sentence, the crux of such an argument is that the defendant should not have been convicted of multiple offenses arising out of a single incident. See Carawan v. State, 515 So.2d 161 (Fla.1987). Therefore, a double jeopardy argument constitutes a challenge of a conviction, rather than a sentence. Since Rule 3.800 provides only an avenue for correcting, modifying, or reducing a sentence, appellant's post-conviction challenge to his conviction would have had to be raised via Rule 3.850, which allows a defendant to attack either sentence or conviction.

As appellant's conviction was affirmed by this court in 1984, a Rule 3.850 motion for post-conviction relief raising the...

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22 cases
  • Collins v. Sec'y, Fla. Dep't of Corr.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Middle District of Florida
    • October 6, 2020
    ...v. State, 675 So. 2d 654, 655 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996); State v. Spella, 567 So. 2d 1051, 1051 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990); Ferenc v. State, 563 So. 2d 707, 707 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990). Second, permitting defendants to attack their conviction and sentence under rule 3.800(a) would subsume Florida Rule of Cri......
  • Sanders v. State, 92-1302
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • May 28, 1993
    ...be addressed in the context of Rule 3.800(a) motions. See also Plowman v. State, 586 So.2d 454 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991); Ferenc v. State, 563 So.2d 707 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990). Any other interpretation would provide an easy escape route around the time-bar for collateral attack on criminal judgments ......
  • Kurtz v. State, 88-03426
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • June 15, 1990
    ...could not legally be imposed under section 775.021(4), Florida Statutes (Supp.1988), for that same offense. 8 Cf. Ferenc v. State, 563 So.2d 707 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990) ("[A] double jeopardy argument constitutes a challenge of a conviction, rather than a sentence."). But cf. Guardado v. State, ......
  • Spencer v. State
    • United States
    • Court of Special Appeals of Maryland
    • September 1, 1992
    ...a verdict was rendered. That is still the position of the common law, both in England and in Maryland, today. In Ferenc v. State, 563 So.2d 707 (Fla.App. 1 Dist.1990), the District Court of Appeal Although double jeopardy arguments are frequently raised as challenges to both conviction and ......
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