State v. Hardley
The First DCA held that the trial court erred by refusing to assess 80 sexual-penetration points on a defendant's Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet following his incest conviction. The court rejected the defendant's argument that incest between consenting adults is a 'victimless crime' exempting it from mandatory penetration scoring, and also criticized the trial court for sua sponte raising an unpreserved equal-protection theory to justify its ruling.
Key facts
- Defendant was convicted of incest under Florida Statute section 826.04, which involves sexual intercourse between family members.
- The trial court refused to assess 80 mandatory sexual-penetration points on the Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet, characterizing incest as a 'victimless crime' and raising an unpreserved equal-protection constitutional challenge.
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Why it matters
This opinion gives sentencing practitioners clear authority that sexual-penetration scoresheet points under section 921.0021(7)(b) are mandatory for incest convictions involving actual intercourse, foreclosing a… — full analysis with a trial
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