Opinion
No. SC96465
Opinion filed July 6, 2000
Application for Review of the Decision of the District Court of Appeal — Certified Great Public Importance Fourth District — Case No. 4D98-2792 (Palm Beach County)
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Ian Seldin, Assistant Public Defender, Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Petitioner
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Celia Terenzio, West Palm Beach Bureau Chief, Criminal Appeals, and Marrett W. Hanna, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Respondent
We have for review the decision in Simmons v. State, 755 So.2d 682 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999), in which the Fourth District certified the same question which was certified in Woods v. State, 740 So.2d 20 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999):
DOES THE PRISON RELEASEE REOFFENDER PUNISHMENT ACT, CODIFIED AS SECTION 775.082(8), FLORIDA STATUTES (1997), VIOLATE THE SEPARATION OF POWERS CLAUSE OF THE FLORIDA CONSTITUTION?
We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.
We recently approved the First District's decision in Woods, holding that the Prisoner 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, Nos. SC94996 SC95281 (Fla. June 15, 2000). Accordingly, for the reasons expressed in Cotton, we answer the certified question in the negative, and approve the decision of the Fourth District in this case.
It is so ordered.
WELLS, C.J., and SHAW, HARDING, 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).