State v. Ellison
| Decision Date | 17 May 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 74532,74532 |
| Citation | 561 So.2d 576 |
| Parties | 15 Fla. L. Weekly S302 STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Stanley B. ELLISON, Respondent. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Edward C. Hill, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for petitioner.
Louis O. Frost, Jr., Public Defender, and James T. Miller, Asst. Public Defender, Jacksonville, for respondent.
We have for review Ellison v. State, 547 So.2d 1003 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989), due to certified conflict with Butler v. State, 543 So.2d 432 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989). We grant review pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(4) of the Florida Constitution. We quash in part the decision of the district court below.
In May 1988, a gray Grand Am automobile was stolen from a Jacksonville mall. The following day, a police officer observed a gray Grand Am exceeding the speed limit and gave chase. Following a high speed pursuit, the driver of the Grand Am lost control and struck another vehicle head on, fatally injuring a sixteen-month-old baby. Ellison, the driver of the Grand Am, was charged with, and convicted of, second-degree murder. At sentencing, the judge added twenty-one points to the scoresheet total for legal constraint because Ellison was on juvenile furlough status at the time of the offense.
Ellison was sentenced to twenty-two years' incarceration for the second-degree murder conviction, and five years for the grand theft, to run concurrently. The district court determined that there was insufficient evidence to support a second-degree murder charge because the state failed to show that Ellison acted out of "ill-will, hatred, spite or an evil intent" toward his eventual victim. It reversed and remanded with directions to enter judgment for manslaughter. It also ruled that it was error to assign status points based on Ellison's furlough status. It certified conflict with Butler, wherein the court held that juvenile furlough constitutes legal constraint for the purpose of assessing status points.
The state argues that the district court erred in interpreting Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.701(d)(6) as excluding juvenile furlough status from legal constraint for the purpose of adding status points to the guidelines scoresheet. We agree. This Court addressed this issue in State v. Young, 561 So.2d 583 (Fla.1990), holding that juvenile furlough constitutes legal constraint for the purpose of guidelines sentencing.
We agree with the district court's conclusion that...
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Davison v. State, 95-2460
...does not contribute to culpability in the manner contended by the state. Pointing to the supreme court's decision in State v. Ellison, 561 So.2d 576 (Fla.1990), in which the court affirmed the decision of this court reducing a conviction on the charged offense of second-degree murder to man......
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Logan v. State, 90-403
...will support culpable negligence is Ellison v. State, 547 So.2d 1003 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989), quashed in part on other grounds, 561 So.2d 576 (Fla.1990). There a criminal suspect, eluding a police officer, was weaving through traffic and traveling more than thirty-five miles per hour over the s......
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Peoples v. State, 1D16–5875
...elements not required by the Legislature, this development in the law has occurred over many decades. See e.g., State v. Ellison, 561 So.2d 576, 577 (Fla. 1990) (citing Fla. Std. Jury Instr. (Crim.) to affirm this court's holding that defendant, driving at high speed to avoid police, crashi......
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State v. Johnson
...Florida equates a "depraved mind" with "malice," defined as "ill-will, hatred, spite, or an evil intent" toward the victim. State v. Ellison (Fla.1990), 561 So.2d 576. Defendant submits that the Florida statute in issue does not require a "purposeful killing." We agree. Ill will, hatred, sp......
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Tragedy behind the wheel: understanding manslaughter by culpable negligence, vehicular homicide, and DUI manslaughter.
...v. State, 371 So. 2d 1024 (Fla. 1979); Ellison v. State, 547 So. 2d 1003 (Fla. 1st D.C.A. 1989), quashed in part on other grounds, 561 So. 2d 576 (Fla. [5] See, e.g., Nozza v. State, 288 So. 2d 560 (Fla. 3d D.C.A.) (defendant allowed child to die of malnutrition), cert. denied, 295 So. 2d 3......