Opinion
No. SC96393
Opinion filed June 29, 2000
Application for Review of the Decision of the District Court of Appeal — Certified Direct Conflict of Decisions Second District — Case No. 2D98-04495 (Pinellas County).
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Robert J. Krauss, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Chief of Criminal Law, and Wendy Buffington, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, Florida, for Petitioner.
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Allyn M. Giambalvo, Assistant Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, Florida, for Respondent.
We have for review the decision in State v. Forde, 742 So.2d 349 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999), which the district court certified to be in conflict with the opinion in Woods v. State, 740 So.2d 20 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999), and McKnight v. State, 727 So.2d 314 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.
We recently approved the First District's decision in Woods, holding that the Prison Releasee Reoffender Act, as properly interpreted by the First District, does not violate separation of powers, and rejecting other constitutional challenges to the Act.See State v. Cotton, SC94996 SC95281 (Fla. June 15, 2000). Accordingly, for the reasons expressed in Cotton, we quash the decision of the appellate court herein, and remand for further proceedings consistent with our opinion in Cotton. Because it appears that the respondent entered a plea of guilty based upon the trial court's indication that respondent, upon such plea, would not be sentenced pursuant to the Act, upon remand to the trial court, respondent shall have the right to withdraw his guilty plea.
It is so ordered.
HARDING, C.J., and SHAW, WELLS, ANSTEAD, PARIENTE and LEWIS, JJ., concur.
QUINCE, J., dissents with an opinion.
I dissent for the reasons stated in my dissent in State v. Cotton, Nos. SC94996 SC95281 (Fla. June 15, 2000).