Summary
The Supreme Court of Florida reviewed a decision involving sentencing under the Prison Releasee Reoffender statute and the 10-20-LIFE statute. It held that a lesser mandatory minimum sentence under the 10-20-LIFE statute must be imposed concurrently with a greater PRR sentence, and that the mandatory PRR sentence for first-degree robbery with a firearm is life imprisonment. The court approved the Fourth District's decision and disapproved conflicting decisions to the extent stated.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether a mandatory minimum sentence under the 10-20-LIFE statute must be imposed concurrently with a greater mandatory minimum sentence under the prison releasee reoffender statute.
- Whether the mandatory PRR sentence for first-degree robbery with a firearm is thirty years or life imprisonment.
Holdings
- A mandatory minimum sentence under the 10-20-LIFE statute must be imposed concurrently with a greater mandatory minimum PRR sentence, even when the 10-20-LIFE sentence is the lesser sentence.
- Under the PRR statute, the mandatory sentence for first-degree robbery with a firearm is life imprisonment, not thirty years.
Key quotations
“We approve the Fourth District's determination that the mandatory minimum sentence under the PRR statute must be imposed concurrently with a lesser mandatory minimum sentence under the 10-20-LIFE statute.” (at 608)
“We hold that a lesser mandatory minimum 10-20-LIFE sentence must be imposed concurrently with a greater mandatory minimum PRR sentence.” (at 612)
“Consequently, we disapprove the decisions of the Second District in Helms and Hall, and, to the extent it conflicts with this opinion, we disapprove the decision of the Third District in Frazier.” (at 613)
Factual background
McDonald committed the offenses slightly more than two months after being released from prison and was therefore designated a prison releasee reoffender on the carjacking and robbery counts. The trial court imposed concurrent mandatory life sentences under the PRR statute and concurrent ten-year mandatory minimum sentences under the 10-20-LIFE statute for possessing a firearm during those offenses. McDonald challenged the sentences as illegal, arguing that the 10-20-LIFE sentences could not run concurrently with the greater PRR sentences and that robbery with a firearm carried a thirty-year rather than a life sentence under the PRR statute.
Procedural history
After a jury convicted McDonald of carjacking with a firearm, two counts of robbery with a firearm, aggravated fleeing and eluding, and grand theft auto, the trial court imposed concurrent mandatory life sentences under the prison releasee reoffender statute and concurrent ten-year mandatory minimum sentences under the 10-20-LIFE statute. The Fourth District affirmed the denial of McDonald's Rule 3.800(a) motion, receded from prior decisions, and certified conflict with decisions of the Second and Third District Courts of Appeal. The Supreme Court of Florida approved the Fourth District's decision on both certified issues.