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634 So. 2d 1074

Docket No. 82034.

State v. Cooper

STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Harold COOPER, Respondent.

Supreme Court of Florida

Decided April 7, 1994.

Supreme Court of Florida · decided 1994-04-07

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[A] defendant may not be convicted of both DUI manslaughter and driving while license suspended or revoked and causing death, with respect to the same victim.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including LORENZO A. MARTINEZ v. STATE OF FLORIDA

“because he has already been punished for the death by the DUI manslaughter conviction.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 987 So. 2d 1237 - Kelly v. State

Relies on 474 So. 2d 1193 - Ramsey v. State · State v. Chapman · Glenn v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1994-04-07

How this case has been cited

Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently May 2019

23 state decisions

90199420002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Barbara Arlene Fink, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for petitioner.

¶2Richard G. Canina of the Law Firm of Mitchell & Canina, P.A., Melbourne, for respondent.

¶3McDONALD, Justice.

¶4We review Cooper v. State,621 So.2d 729, 732 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993), because the district court certified the following question to be of great public importance:

WHETHER A DEFENDANT CAN BE CONVICTED AND SENTENCED FOR BOTH THE OFFENSE OF DUI MANSLAUGHTER AND THE OFFENSE OF DRIVING WHILE LICENSE SUSPENDED AND CARELESSLY OR NEGLIGENTLY CAUSING THE DEATH OF ANOTHER HUMAN BEING WHERE THERE IS ONLY A SINGLE DEATH.

¶5We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.

¶6The district court properly ruled that there can be but one penalty imposed for causing the death of a single victim. State v. Chapman,625 So.2d 838 (Fla. 1993); Houser v. State,474 So.2d 1193 (Fla. 1985). It is entirely appropriate to convict a person *1075 of both DUI manslaughter and driving while license is suspended, but it is inappropriate to enhance the degree of both crimes by using a single homicide. Cooper was convicted of violating subsection 316.193(3)(c)(3), Florida Statutes (1991), a second-degree felony. He may also be convicted of violating subsection 322.34(1) or (2), Florida Statutes (1991), but not subsection 322.34(3) because he has already been punished for the death by the DUI manslaughter conviction.

¶7We adopt the rationale and approve the decision of the district court of appeal.

¶8It is so ordered.

¶9BARKETT, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW, GRIMES, KOGAN and HARDING, JJ., concur.

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