Powell v. State, BP-340

• Decision Date: 17 June 1987
• Docket Number: No. BP-340,BP-340
• Citation: 508 So.2d 1307,12 Fla. L. Weekly 1491
• Parties: 12 Fla. L. Weekly 1491 Richard O. POWELL and Freddie D. Roulhac, Appellants, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 1307

508 So.2d 1307

12 Fla. L. Weekly 1491

Richard O. POWELL and Freddie D. Roulhac, Appellants, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. BP-340.

District Court of Appeal of Florida First District.

June 17, 1987.

Philip J. Padavano, Tallahassee, for appellants.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and John W. Tiedemann, and Elizabeth Masters, Asst. Attys. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.

ZEHMER, Judge.

Defendants below, Richard O. Powell and Freddie D. Roulhac, appeal their convictions of malpractice by a jailer in violation of section 950.09, Florida Statutes (1985). They contend that this statute is impermissibly vague and overbroad and therefore violative of the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. Finding no merit to this argument, we affirm.

Appellants are correctional officers at the Jackson County Jail. On March 6, 1986, separate two-count informations were filed against each appellant charging him with aggravated battery under section 784.045, a felony, and malpractice by a jailer under section 950.09, a misdemeanor. ¹ The charges arose out of a November 1985 disturbance in the cell block in which inmate Carson Evans was housed. Appellants believed Evans was responsible for the disturbance, so they took him out of his cell and restrained him with his hands handcuffed behind his back and his feet shackled. The officers then drew Evans' arms upward with a chain secured to the bars of a cell, and he remained in that position for thirty to forty-five minutes. A similar incident involving Lambert Gavin, a juvenile inmate of the jail, gave rise to informations charging appellants with aggravated child abuse and malpractice by a jailer. Appellants unsuccessfully moved to dismiss the informations in both cases, contending that section 950.09 is unconstitutional because the statute is so vague and indefinite that it fails to convey a sufficient warning as to the type conduct prohibited.

A jury trial was held in the Evans case. Appellants testified that Evans' body was not elevated by the chain and that his feet were flat on the floor at all times. Evans testified, however, that his arms were hoisted behind his back so that only his toes were touching the ground. He testified that after about fifteen minutes his wrist started hurting, "feeling like it was in shock or something" (R 142). He also said his back and his ankle were hurting, and he asked Roulhac to let him down. Roulhac told him he'd have to "stay up a little bit more longer" and didn't release Evans until approximately thirty minutes had elapsed. Since this is an appeal from a finding of guilty, we must accept as true the version of the facts given by Evans.

The judge instructed the jury on the offense proscribed by section 950.09 and stated in part that "[d]uress consists in any illegal imprisonment, or legal imprisonment used for an illegal purpose or threats of bodily or other harm, and then inhumanity and oppression are defined as an extreme or aggravated cruelty." ² (T 201.) The jury found each of the appellants not guilty of aggravated battery but guilty of the misdemeanor offense of malpractice by a jailer. In the Gavin case, pursuant to agreement, the state dismissed the felony charge of aggravated child abuse and appellants plead nolo contendere to the charge of malpractice by a jailer, reserving the right to appeal the denial of the motion to dismiss on constitutional grounds. In each case the trial court entered an order withholding adjudication of guilt as to each appellant, placing each appellant on probation for a total of six months, and ordering each appellant to pay a fine of five hundred dollars.

Appellants contend that section 950.09 does not set forth the elements of the crime of "malpractice by a jailer" and does not contain any standards for determining what conduct amounts to malpractice. That section, they argue, is too vague and therefore violative of the fourteenth amendment because the phrase "willful inhumanity and oppression" is so subjective that it cannot be said to sufficiently inform the public of the type of conduct prohibited. Appellants argue that the statute does not define a criminal offense but, rather, authorizes the state attorney to decide what will constitute a criminal offense, and, thus, unconstitutionally allows the potential for arbitrary application of the statute.

The function of the void-for-vagueness doctrine is to assure that people are given fair notice of what conduct is prohibited by a specific criminal statute and to curb the discretion afforded to law enforcement officers and administrative officials in initiating criminal prosecutions. A statute will be held void for vagueness if the conduct forbidden by it is so unclearly defined that persons "of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application." Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U.S. 385, 46 S.Ct. 126, 70 L.Ed. 322 (1926). However, "[t]o make a statute sufficiently certain to comply with constitutional requirements, it is not necessary that it furnish detailed plans and specifications of the acts or conduct prohibited." State v. Holden, 299 So. 2d 8, 9 (Fla.1974). It is only necessary that the language of the statute convey a sufficiently definite warning as to the proscribed conduct when measured by common understanding and practices. State v. Reese, 222 So.2d 732, 736 (Fla.1969).

In deciding whether section 950.09 is unconstitutionally vague, we necessarily focus upon the phrase "willful inhumanity and oppression" to determine whether the words "inhumanity" and "oppression" convey sufficient warning of ascertainable proscribed conduct when measured by common understanding and practices. A cardinal rule of statutory construction requires that, unless otherwise...