## Facts

- Michael Ray Clines entered a nolo contendere plea to grand theft and resisting arrest with violence.
- The State sought enhanced sentencing under Florida’s recidivist statute, § 775.084, asserting Clines qualified as both a habitual felony offender (HFO) and a violent career criminal (VCC).
- For resisting arrest with violence (a second-degree felony), the trial court imposed a 10-year prison term as an HFO and also imposed a 10-year mandatory minimum as a VCC, applying two recidivist classifications to the same offense.
- Clines challenged the sentence as unauthorized by the statutory scheme.

## Issues

1. Whether § 775.084 permits a court to apply more than one recidivist sentencing category to enhance punishment for the same offense.

## Decision

- The Florida Supreme Court quashed the decision affirming Clines’s sentence and remanded for further proceedings.
- The court held that only one § 775.084 recidivist category may be used to enhance the sentence for a single offense.
- The court approved decisions holding recidivist categories under § 775.084 are alternatives for a given count, not cumulative enhancements.

## Legal Principles

- Section 775.084 establishes distinct recidivist categories with overlapping eligibility criteria and an ordered, increasing scale of punishment.
- When a defendant qualifies for multiple § 775.084 categories, the sentencing court must select a single category for a given offense; it may not “stack” multiple recidivist classifications on the same count.
- Ambiguity in a penal enhancement statute is construed against broader punishment; where § 775.084 is unclear about cumulative application, the rule of lenity supports limiting enhancement to one category per offense.
- Legislative design of graduated recidivist punishment indicates a hierarchical choice among categories rather than additive use absent clear authorization.

## Conclusion

The court held that Florida’s recidivist statute allows only one recidivist classification to enhance a sentence for any single conviction, requiring resentencing where a trial court applied multiple § 775.084 categories to the same offense.


Clines v. State, 912 So. 2d 550 (Fla. 2005)