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Reply Brief of Interested Party Fair Elections Center (October 3, 2019)

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Reply Brief of Interested Party Fair Elections Center (October 3, 2019) Filing # 96725448 E-Filed 10/03/2019 05:13:34 PM IN THE SUPREME COURT OF FLORIDA ADVISORY OPINION TO THE Case No. SC19-1341 GOVERNOR RE: IMPLEMENTATION OF AMENDMENT 4, THE VOTING RESTORATION AMENDMENT REPLY BRIEF OF INTERESTED PARTY FAIR ELECTIONS CENTER Jon Sherman* Theodore Leopold D.C. Bar No. 998271 Florida Bar No. 705608 Cecilia Aguilera* Diana L. Martin D.C. Bar No. 1617884 Florida Bar No. 624489 FAIR ELECTIONS CENTER Poorad Razavi 1825 K St. NW, Suite 450 Florida Bar No. 022876 Washington, DC 20006 COHEN MILSTEIN SELLERS & TOLL PLLC (202) 331-0114 2925 PGA Boulevard | Suite 200 [email protected] Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] *Admitted Pro Hac Vice [email protected] phone 561.515.1400 fax 561.515.1401 Attorneys for Interested Party, Fair Elections Center RECEIVED, 10/03/201905:14:32 PM,Clerk,Supreme Court TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CITATIONS ........................................................................................ iii SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ................................................................................. 1 ARGUMENT ............................................................................................................. 2 1. The interested state parties could not identify any Florida statutes or rules that demonstrate costs and fees are part of criminal sentences. ................................................................................ 3 2. The cases cited by the interested state parties do not support a finding that costs and fees are component parts of a sentence.............. 7 a. .... The Senate’s reliance on Jackson and Martinez is misplaced; Jackson strongly suggests costs and fees are separate from the sentence itself, and Martinez is an outlier that is in tension with this Court’s precedents. ................................................................. 7 b. ....... Osterhoudt does not support the Governor’s argument that “[t]his Court’s own precedent expressly acknowledges that fines, fees, and restitution are considered valid parts of a sentence.” ...15 c. ....Castrillon does not support the Florida House’s assertion that “a criminal sentence, to accomplish the goals of the criminal justice system, may include” costs and fees because costs and fees do not serve the punitive goals of Florida’s criminal justice system. .........................................................................................17 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................19 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE ................................................................................21 CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE .......................................................................21 ii TABLE OF CITATIONS Constitutions FLA. CONST. art. I, § 9 ..............................................................................................12 FLA. CONST. art. V, § 14 ..........................................................................................19 U.S. CONST. amend. V, cl.4 .....................................................................................12 Statutes § 28.246, Fla. Stat. ...............................................................................................7, 14 § 775.083, Fla. Stat. ................................................................................................... 5 § 903.286, Fla. Stat. ................................................................................................... 6 § 921.002, Fla. Stat. .................................................................................................18 § 921.187, Fla. Stat. ................................................................................................... 4 § 932.51, Fla. Stat. ..................................................................................................... 5 § 938.27, Fla. Stat. ..................................................................................................... 5 § 948.09, Fla. Stat. ...................................................................................................14 § 951.032, Fla. Stat. .................................................................................................14 § 951.033, Fla. Stat. .................................................................................................14 § 985.0301, Fla. Stat. ................................................................................................. 6 SB 7066 ...................................................................................................................... 2 Rules FLA. R. APP. P. 9.140 ..............................................................................................7, 8 iii FLA. R. CRIM. P. 3.650 ............................................................................................... 5 FLA. R. CRIM. P. 3.700 .........................................................................................5, 15 FLA. R. CRIM. P. 3.800 ............................................................................... 8, 9, 11, 16 FLA. R. CRIM. P. 3.986 ................................................................................................ 6 Cases Castrillon v. State, 821 So. 2d 360 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002) ................................. 17, 18 Durant v. State, 177 So. 3d 995 (Fla. 5th DCA 2015) .............................................. 9 Griffin v. State, 980 So. 2d 1035 (Fla. 2008) .............................................. 13, 14, 17 Jackson v. State, 983 So. 2d 562 (Fla. 2008) ................................................... passim Jones v. State, 666 So. 2d 191 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995) ................................................15 Jones v. State, 700 So. 2d 776 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997) ................................................16 Lindquist v. State, 155 So. 3d 1193 (Fla. 2d DCA 2014) .......................................... 9 Maddox v. State, 760 So. 2d 89 (Fla. 2000) .......................................... 10, 12, 14, 17 Martinez v. State, 91 So. 3d 878 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012) .................................... passim Nix v. State, 84 So. 3d 424 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012) .....................................................16 Osterhoudt v. State, 214 So. 3d 550 (Fla. 2017) ............................................... 15, 16 State v. Akins, 69 So. 3d 261 (Fla. 2011) .................................................................13 State v. Jones, 180 So. 3d 1085 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015) .............................................17 United States v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321 (1998) ...................................................17 United States v. Usery, 518 U.S. 267 (1996) ...........................................................12 iv Walden v. State, 112 So. 3d 578 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013) .............................................. 9 Waller v. State, 911 So. 2d 226 (Fla. 2d DCA 2005) ..............................................16 Williams v. State, 198 So. 3d 778 (Fla. 2d DCA 2016) ...........................................16 Other Authorities Amendments to Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure 3.111(e) and 3.800 and Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure 9.020(H), 9.140, and 9.600, 761 So. 2d 1015 (Fla. 1999). ...............................................................................................8, 17 Fla. Const. Revision Comm’n, Statement of Intent Regarding Article V, Section 14, 30 J. OF THE 1997-1998 CONST. REV. COMM’N 260 (May 5, 1998) .....................19 v SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT The four interested state parties urge this Court to construe the phrase “all terms of sentence” in Article VI, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution to include costs and fees. See Governor Ron DeSantis’ Initial Brief at 8–10, 20–21, 23–27 (hereafter, “Governor’s Brief”); Initial Brief of Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee at 1 (hereafter, “Secretary of State’s Brief”); Initial Brief of the Florida House of Representatives at 3, 23–24 (hereafter, “House Brief”); Brief of the Florida Senate at 8, 13–16 (hereafter, “Senate Brief”). They appear to think this reading is self- evident, repeatedly stating in conclusory fashion that sentences include costs and fees. However, they fail to marshal adequate legal support for this unsubstantiated assertion. One would think that if criminal sentences embraced costs and fees under Florida law—and that if this dovetailed with the common, popular understanding of the word “sentence”—then the state’s legislators, judges, and Justices would have explicitly mentioned this and on more than one occasion. But each of these four briefs strains to present legal authorities to this Court that include costs and fees within the ambit of the “terms of sentence.” The closest any of the cited statutes comes is the unremarkable statement that the assessment of certain discretionary costs and fees must be pronounced at sentencing, and the only case presented that suggests costs and fees are part of the sentence is the outlier decision in Martinez v. 1 State, 91 So. 3d 878 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012), which is in considerable tension with this Court’s decisions. On the other side of the scale, there are countless Florida statutes and rules that distinguish between penalties and sentences, on the one hand, and costs and fees on the other. And, as documented in Fair Elections Center’s initial brief, this Court and the Courts of Appeals have repeatedly characterized costs and fees as non- punitive, purely for administrative
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