Sanders v. State
| Decision Date | 16 July 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 69626,69626 |
| Citation | 510 So.2d 296,12 Fla. L. Weekly 391 |
| Parties | 12 Fla. L. Weekly 391 Henry Lee SANDERS, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, and Margaret Good, Asst. Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for petitioner.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Diane Leeds, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for respondent.
In State v. Sanders, 512 So.2d 204, 205 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986), the following question was certified to us as one of great public importance:
CAN THE TRIAL JUDGE DEPART DOWNWARD FROM THE GUIDELINES IF THE DEFENDANT HAS NO PRIOR CONVICTIONS OR ARRESTS AND IF THE JUDGE BELIEVES THE DEFENDANT SHOULD NOT RECEIVE A SENTENCE MORE SEVERE THAN A CO-PERPETRATOR OF THE SAME CRIME WHO HAS BEEN THE RECIPIENT OF A PLEA BARGAIN?
We have jurisdiction pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(4), Florida Constitution.
Sanders was charged along with two codefendants with two counts of robbery. Under the guidelines, the recommended sentence for Sanders if he was convicted of these crimes was twelve to thirty months. Bateman, one of the codefendants, had pled guilty pursuant to a plea bargain and received two years probation conditioned upon five months in the county jail for which he received full credit for the time served.
Sanders offered to plead guilty if the court would sentence him in a manner similar to Bateman. His counsel represented that the case involved a purse snatch robbery of two women who had been knocked to the ground. The victims were unable to identify anyone, but several witnesses gave descriptions which led to the stopping of a car occupied by Sanders, Bateman and a woman who ultimately became the third codefendant. Witnesses had said one of the two robbers was wearing a red shirt and one of them was a female. When the car was stopped, Sanders, the driver, was wearing khaki-colored clothes while Bateman was wearing a red shirt. Bateman had money in his pocket in exactly the amount and denominations described as being stolen, whereas Sanders had less than two dollars in his pocket. Bateman also gave inconsistent statements concerning his whereabouts on the day in question, and at one point wrote a letter to the public defender admitting his guilt and stating that Sanders "didn't do anything."
Counsel stated that she believed that Bateman had a prior criminal record, although not a serious one, and that he was supposed to cooperate with the state in Sanders' case. She surmised that the state had offered Bateman a plea bargain because of identification problems. While the physical descriptions given by the witnesses matched Bateman, one of them picked Sanders' photo out of a photo lineup. Apparently, no one could positively identify Bateman. The assistant state attorney, who was substituting for other counsel on the day of the hearing, did not rebut defense counsel's representations, but he did object to any sentence below the guidelines recommendation. The court accepted Sanders' plea and gave him the same sentence as that received by Bateman. The guidelines scoresheet listed the following reasons for departure:
Defendant, age 32, has no prior arrests or record. Codefendant Bateman was given same sentence as part of plea agreement with state. Court believes both defendants should be treated similarly in this case.
The district court of appeal expressed its approval of the sentence but nevertheless reversed it as an impermissible downward departure under existing case law.
We agree with the district court that the lack of prior convictions cannot be a basis for a downward departure. The sentencing guidelines are designed to reflect prior...
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