State v. Thompson

• Decision Date: 22 December 1999
• Docket Number: No. 92,831.,92,831.
• Citation: 750 So.2d 643
• Parties: STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Carol Leigh THOMPSON, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

750 So.2d 643

STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Carol Leigh THOMPSON, Respondent.

No. 92,831.

Supreme Court of Florida.

December 22, 1999.

Rehearing Denied February 22, 2000.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, James W. Rogers, Tallahassee Bureau Chief, Criminal Appeals, Robert J. Krauss, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Chief of Criminal Law, Tampa, and Susan D. Dunlevy, Tampa, and Edward C. Hill, Jr., Tallahassee, Assistant Attorneys General, for Petitioner.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Richard J. Sanders, Assistant Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, Florida, for Respondent.

PER CURIAM.

We have for review Thompson v. State, 708 So.2d 315 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998), in which the Second District Court of Appeal held unconstitutional chapter 95-182, Laws of Florida. Specifically, the court found that chapter 95-182 violates the single subject rule contained in article III, section 6 of the Florida Constitution. See Thompson, 708 So.2d at 317

. In so holding, the Second District acknowledged conflict with the Third District's decision in Higgs v. State, 695 So.2d 872, 873 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997), wherein the court rejected a single subject rule challenge to section 95-182. We have jurisdiction. See Art. V, § 3(b)(1), (3), Fla. Const. As set forth more fully below, we agree with the Second District's decision in Thompson and find that chapter 95-182 violates the single subject rule.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND IN THE PRESENT CASE

On January 25, 1996, the State of Florida (the State) filed an information against Carol Leigh Thompson (Thompson), charging her with three criminal offenses which occurred on November 16, 1995. These offenses included robbery with a firearm, aggravated battery of a person over the age of sixty-five, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The robbery with a firearm charge was a first-degree felony punishable by life; the aggravated battery charge was a first-degree felony; and the firearm possession charge was a second-degree felony.

After charging Thompson with these felony offenses, the State filed a notice of intent to have her sentenced as a "Habitual Felony/Habitual Violent Felony Offender/Violent Career Criminal" pursuant to section 775.084, Florida Statutes (1995). The version of section 775.084 applicable in Thompson's case had been amended by the passage of chapter 95-182, which became effective on October 1, 1995. See Ch. 95-182, § 12, at 1675, Laws of Fla. Under chapter 95-182, sections 2 through 7 of which are entitled the "Officer Evelyn Gort and All Fallen Officers Career Criminal Act of 1995" (the Gort Act), see id. § 1, at 1665, the Legislature, among other things, created the "violent career criminal" sentencing category for certain criminal offenders. See id. § 2, at 1665. In sections 8 through 10 of chapter 95-182, the Legislature addressed several aspects of domestic violence. See id. §§ 8-10, at 1673-75.

In response to the State's notice of intent, Thompson filed a motion to preclude the trial court from sentencing her as a violent career criminal and to declare unconstitutional chapter 95-182, claiming that the chapter law violated the single subject rule. The trial court denied Thompson's motion, and she then entered a plea of nolo contendere conditioned upon her right to appeal that denial. On May 21, 1996, the trial court sentenced Thompson as a violent career criminal to forty years in prison on the firearm possession charge, with a thirty-year minimum mandatory term, and life in prison on the robbery with a firearm and aggravated battery charges, with all of the sentences to run concurrently with one another.¹ Thompson appealed and, as stated above, the Second District reversed the trial court's determination and found that chapter 95-182 violates the single subject rule. We now have that constitutional issue before us for determination.

II. STANDING TO CHALLENGE CHAPTER 95-182 ON SINGLE SUBJECT RULE GROUNDS

All of the provisions contained in chapter 95-182 became effective on October 1, 1995. See Ch. 95-182, § 12, at 1675. According to the Second District's decision in Thompson, the applicable window period for challenging chapter 95-182 on single subject rule grounds opened on October 1, 1995, and closed on May 24, 1997, the date on which chapter 97-97, Laws of Florida, reenacted the provisions contained in chapter 95-182 as part of the Legislature's biennial adoption of the Florida Statutes. See Thompson, 708 So.2d at 317 n. 1

(relying on State v. Johnson, 616 So.2d 1, 2 (Fla.1993)). In other words, according to the Second District's determination in Thompson, persons who committed their criminal offenses on or after October 1, 1995, and before May 24, 1997, and were sentenced as violent career criminals for those offenses, have standing to challenge chapter 95-182 on single subject rule grounds. On review before this Court, the parties in Thompson did not dispute the Second District's determination regarding the applicable window period.

While Thompson was pending before this Court, however, the Fourth District issued its decision in Salters v. State, 731 So.2d 826, 826 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999), wherein the court certified conflict with the Second District's decision in Thompson regarding the window period issue. Specifically, the Salters Court held that the defendant in that case, who committed his offense on April 27, 1997, did not have standing to challenge the violent career criminal sentence imposed upon him because "the opportunity to challenge his sentence, based upon the constitutionality of the statute, ended on October 1, 1996." Id. In support of this holding, the Fourth District cited its prior decision in Scott v. State, 721 So.2d 1245, 1246 n. 1 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998), wherein the State argued that the enactment of chapter 96-388, Laws of Florida, with an effective date of October 1, 1996, cured any alleged single subject rule problems in chapter 95-182. Although the Scott Court expressed no opinion as to the close of the window period because the defendant in that case committed his offense outside the window period identified in Thompson, see Scott, 721 So.2d at 1246 n. 1,

the Salters Court apparently accepted the argument espoused by the State in Scott.

As a result of the Salters decision, this Court requested supplemental briefing from the parties in Thompson regarding the window period issue.² In their supplemental briefs, both the State and Thompson correctly note that even if the window period identified in Salters is appropriate, Thompson would still have standing to challenge chapter 95-182 on single subject rule grounds because she committed her offenses on November 16, 1995.³ In light of this fact, we decline to rule in this case as to when the window period closed for persons claiming that their violent career criminal sentences are invalid due to the amendments affected by chapter 95-182, noting that Thompson clearly has standing to make such a claim here.

III. SINGLE SUBJECT RULE ANALYSIS

We turn now to the question of whether chapter 95-182 violates article III, section 6 of the Florida Constitution, which provides, in pertinent part, that "[e]very law shall embrace but one subject and matter properly connected therewith, and the subject shall be briefly expressed in the title." This constitutional provision is commonly referred to as the single subject rule, and this Court previously has discussed the purposes underlying that rule.

In State ex rel. Flink v. Canova, 94 So.2d 181, 184 (Fla.1957), which is quoted in the decision below, see Thompson, 708 So.2d at 316,

this Court agreed with the analysis of a legal scholar who had set forth a three-fold purpose underlying single subject rules contained in various state constitutions:

(1) to prevent hodge podge or "log rolling" legislation, i.e., putting two unrelated matters in one act; (2) to prevent surprise or fraud by means of provisions in bills of which the titles gave no intimation, and which might therefore be overlooked and carelessly and unintentionally adopted; and (3) to fairly apprise the people of the subjects of legislation that are being considered, in order that they may have opportunity of being heard thereon.

More recently, this Court stated:

The purpose of this constitutional prohibition against a plurality of subjects in a single legislative act is to prevent "logrolling" where a single enactment becomes a cloak for dissimilar legislation having no necessary or appropriate connection with the subject matter. State v. Lee, 356 So.2d 276 (Fla.1978). The act may be as broad as the legislature chooses provided the matters included in the act have a natural or logical connection. Chenoweth v. Kemp, 396 So.2d 1122 (Fla.1981).

Johnson, 616 So.2d at 4 (quoting Martinez v. Scanlan, 582 So.2d 1167, 1172 (Fla. 1991)). Thus, in analyzing whether chapter 95-182 meets the requirements of the single subject rule, it is clear that we must review the various sections of that chapter law to determine whether they have a natural or logical connection.

Chapter 95-182 is comprised of twelve subsections. See ch. 95-182, §§ 1-12, at 1665-75. Section 1 of the chapter law provides that sections 2 through 7 may be cited as the Gort Act, see id. § 1, at 1665, while sections 11 and 12 provide for severability and the effective date of the chapter law. See id. §§ 11, 12 at 1675. Thus, the substantive portions of the chapter law are contained in sections 2 through 10.

In section 2 of chapter 95-182, the Legislature substantially amended section 775.084, Florida Statutes. For example, the Legislature created and defined the "violent career criminal" sentencing category, adding that new sentencing category to the already existing habitual felony offender and habitual violent felony offender sentencing categories. See Ch. 95-182, § 2, at 1667 (amending section 775.084(1)(c), Florida Statutes). In addition, the Legislature added "aggravated stalking"...