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634 So. 2d 157

Docket No. 81274.

Goodwin v. State

Alex D. GOODWIN, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.

Supreme Court of Florida

Decided February 3, 1994.

Supreme Court of Florida · decided 1994-02-03

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“I believe that the Legislature could not have intended that a defendant could be convicted of two crimes of homicide for killing a single person.”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including 780 So. 2d 17 - Gordon v. State, 830 So. 2d 944 - Mitchell v. State

“aggravated forms of a single underlying offense distinguished only by degree factors.”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including 780 So. 2d 17 - Gordon v. State, 852 So. 2d 898 - Austin v. State

Relies on 474 So. 2d 1193 - Ramsey v. State · 634 So. 2d 153 - Sirmons v. State · Murphy v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1994-02-03

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently June 2012

12 state decisions

60199420002010decided

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 →

¶1Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Paul E. Petillo, Asst. Public Defender, Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, West Palm Beach, for petitioner.

¶2Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Joan Fowler, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., Chief, Crim. Law, and Joseph A. Tringali, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for respondent.

¶3PER CURIAM.

¶4We have for review Goodwin v. State, 610 So.2d 31 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992), which certified the following question of great public importance:

Whether a defendant can be convicted and sentenced for UBAL manslaughter and vehicular homicide arising out of one death?

¶5We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. Based on our opinion in Sirmons v. State, 634 So.2d 153 (Fla. 1994), we find that the two offenses at issue here are aggravated forms of a single underlying offense distinguished only by degree factors. Multiple punishments thus are not allowed. Section 775.021(4)(b)2., Fla. Stat. (1989). See also Houser v. State, 474 So.2d 1193 (Fla. 1985).

¶6For that reason, we answer the certified question in the negative, quash the decision below to the extent it is inconsistent with this opinion, and remand for further proceedings consistent with our views here and with Sirmons. We disapprove the opinion in Murphy v. State, 578 So.2d 410 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991), to the extent it is inconsistent with this opinion. We decline to address the other issues raised by the parties, which lie beyond the scope of the certified question.

¶7It is so ordered.

¶8BARKETT, C.J., and OVERTON, McDONALD, SHAW, KOGAN and HARDING, JJ., concur.

¶9GRIMES, J., concurs with an opinion, in which SHAW and HARDING, JJ., concur.

¶10GRIMES, Justice, concurring.

¶11I dissented to our decision in Sirmons v. State, 634 So.2d 153 (Fla. 1994). However, I *158 believe that the Legislature could not have intended that a defendant could be convicted of two crimes of homicide for killing a single person.

¶12SHAW and HARDING, JJ., concur.

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