Hayward v. State, s. 84-748

Decision Date17 April 1985
Docket Number84-749,Nos. 84-748,84-750,s. 84-748
Citation10 Fla. L. Weekly 1010,467 So.2d 462
Parties10 Fla. L. Weekly 1010 Joseph HAYWARD, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, Bartow, and Douglas S. Conner, Asst. Public Defender, Tampa, for appellant.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Frank Migliore, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.

FRANK, Judge.

The appellant urges six points in attacking the trial court's revocation of probation and the imposition of sentences in excess of the guidelines' recommended range. We reject four of the appellant's issues on appeal, comment as follows upon the remaining two, and affirm the sentences.

The appellant engaged in illicit drug activity during the period of his probation and prior to October 1, 1983, the guidelines' effective date. He now claims that he was sentenced under the guidelines without a sufficient showing that he affirmatively elected to be sentenced in that manner. The record belies the assertion. At sentencing, the trial court asked the appellant if he wished to be sentenced under the guidelines and his counsel replied "yes." The court announced that it would not follow the guidelines. Thus, the appellant was adjudicated guilty of the offenses underlying his probationary status and sentenced to four consecutive five year terms. The appellant's counsel's response binds the appellant. Newsome v. State, 466 So.2d 411 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985); Moore v State, 455 So.2d 535 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). And, the violation of probation constitutes a "clear and convincing" reason for departure from the presumptive sentence in order to enhance the penalty. Randolph v. State, 458 So.2d 64 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984).

We do not subscribe to the view urged by the appellant that the process associated with the affirmative selection of a guidelines sentence, occurring against the backdrop of a crime committed prior to October 1, 1983, requires record disclosure that the trial court determined the selection to have been knowingly and intelligently reached. We do not question that the abandonment of potential parole may affect a prisoner's ultimate moment of freedom. But a defendant's loss of parole stemming from the selection of a guidelines sentence and the trial court's subsequent departure permitted under Rule 3.701(d)(11), are matters to be considered and evaluated by the defendant and his or her counsel. We find no basis upon which to convert the defense attorney's task of counseling the criminally charged defendant into a judicial responsibility. The element of a strategic choice between sentencing options and the resultant consequences requires no greater degree of trial court scrutiny, apart from the exception referred to below, than would any other aspect of a criminal proceeding demanding the formation of tactical judgments which best serve a defendant's interests.

Moreover, we have serious difficulty in attempting to place the affirmative selection of a guidelines sentence in the same cubicle with the entry of a plea of guilty or nolo contendere. The need for judicial certainty as a prelude to receiving either of those pleas derives not merely from the penalty facing a criminal defendant, but more significantly from the deprivation through abandonment of constitutionally essential procedural rights. It is for that reason that Rule 3.170(i) and (j) of the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure requires our trial courts to be assured that guilty and nolo pleas are the product of informed and intelligent judgments. Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969). We attach no comparable constitutional compulsion, however, to a trial court's acceptance of a...

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4 cases
  • Glover v. State
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • August 28, 1985
    ...would be taken as not choosing guideline sentencing). As recently noted by the Second District Court of Appeal in Hayward v. State, 467 So.2d 462, 464 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985): Although departure from a presumptive sentence in the context of a crime committed prior to October 1, 1983 does disadva......
  • Burrell v. State
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • February 12, 1986
    ...by an independent act of the state which alone exposes the defendant to an otherwise impermissible ex post facto law." Hayward v. State, 467 So.2d 462, 464 (Fla. 2d DCA), petition for review denied, 476 So.2d 674 ...
  • Booker v. State, s. 85-408
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • December 13, 1985
    ...that section 921.001(4)(a), Florida Statutes (1983), violates article X, section 9, of the Florida Constitution. Hayward v. State, 467 So.2d 462 (Fla.2d DCA 1985). We also find no merit to defendant's third argument that the court erred in refusing defense counsel's request to consult with ......
  • Loden v. Cester
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • April 17, 1985

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