Opinion
No. 4D99-0968.
Opinion filed June 21, 2000. JANUARY TERM 2000
Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Paul Backman, Judge; L.T. No. 98-5044CF10A.
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Joseph R. Chloupek, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Jeanine M. Germanowicz, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
ON MOTION FOR CERTIFICATION AND TO STAY MANDATE
The state's motion for certification and motion to stay mandate is granted.
As we did in West v. State, No. 4D99-2537, 2000 WL 668894 (Fla. 4th DCA May 24, 2000), and Brooks v. State, No. 4D99-1017, 2000 WL 526040 (Fla. 4th DCA May 3, 2000), we certify conflict with our sister courts in Alfonso v. State, No. 3D99-618, 2000 WL 485049 (Fla. 3d DCA Apr. 26, 2000); Smith v. State, 754 So.2d 100(Fla. 1st DCA 2000); and Grant v. State, 745 So.2d 519 (Fla. 2d DCA), review granted, No. SC99-164 (Fla. Apr. 12, 2000), on the issue of whether the double jeopardy clause precludes sentencing a defendant as both a prison releasee reoffender and an habitual felony offender.
We certify to the Florida Supreme Court as a question of great public importance:
Is it a violation of double jeopardy principles to sentence a defendant under both the Prison Releasee Reoffender Act and the habitual offender statute for the same offense?
Finally, we stay our mandate pending resolution of the certified question by the supreme court.
DELL, POLEN and GROSS, JJ., concur.