Jesse David Hicks v. State of Florida

Summary

The First District Court of Appeal of Florida affirmed Jesse David Hicks’s prison releasee reoffender sentence without deciding whether Erlinger v. United States requires a jury finding under Florida’s PRR statute. The court held that any alleged error was harmless because Hicks and his counsel acknowledged, and Department of Corrections records confirmed, that he was released from prison within three years of the current offenses. Judge Winokur concurred, discussing the relationship among Apprendi, Alleyne, Erlinger, and Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800, and expressing the view that Alleyne—not Erlinger—supports requiring a jury determination of the release-date fact.

Holdings

1. Even assuming that Erlinger applies to Florida prison releasee reoffender sentencing and that the trial court erred by making the relevant finding rather than submitting it to a jury, the error was harmless because the record established beyond a reasonable doubt that no rational jury would have found that Hicks failed to qualify based on the timing of his release and current offenses.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the failure to submit to a jury the question whether Hicks was released from prison within three years of committing the current offenses required reversal of his prison releasee reoffender sentence under Erlinger v. United States.
2. Whether any assumed sentencing error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

Disposition

affirmed