State v. Finelli

Full title: STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellant, v. KAREN FINELLI, Appellee

Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District

Date published: Nov 17, 1999

No. 98-3125 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Nov. 17, 1999)

Opinion

No. 98-3125.

Opinion filed November 17, 1999.

Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Richard D. Eade, Judge; L.T. No. 98-8647 CF10A.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Rochelle Lewis Kirdy, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

J. David Bogenschutz of Bogenschutz Dutko, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING OR REHEARING EN BANC AND/OR CERTIFICATION OF A QUESTION OF GREAT PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

PER CURIAM.

We deny the State's motions for rehearing or rehearing en banc, but grant its motion to certify a question of great public importance. Accordingly, we certify the following question to be of great public importance:

SHOULD THE DEFINITION OF "CONVICTION" IN FELONY DUI CASES BE IDENTICAL WITH HOW THE TERM IS DEFINED IN STATE V. SNYDER, 673 SO.2d 9 (FLA. 1996), GIVEN THE FACT THAT IN BOTH CASES A PRIOR "CONVICTION" IS AN ELEMENT OF THE SUBSTANTIVE OFFENSE AND THE LEGISLATURE INTENDED TO PROTECT THE GENERAL PUBLIC FROM DANGEROUS INSTRUMENTALITIES SUCH AS FIREARMS AND MOTOR VEHICLES IN THE HANDS OF DRUNK DRIVERS?

GUNTHER, GROSS and HAZOURI, JJ., concur.