Case ID: so2d_354/html/1221-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM. PEARSON, Judge", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Donald Ray WELLS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee.
    No. 76-2161.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
    Jan. 24, 1978.
    Rehearing Denied Feb. 27, 1978.
    Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender and Beth C. Weitzner, Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.
    Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen. and Margarita Esquiroz, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
    Before HAVERFIELD, C. J., and PEARSON and HENDRY, JJ.
   PER CURIAM.

Appellant was found guilty by a jury of burglary and grand larceny.

He seeks reversal of his convictions on the grounds (1) that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress confessions without an unequivocal and explicit finding of voluntariness, and (2) that the court erred in sentencing the defendant to fifteen years imprisonment at hard labor.

We have carefully reviewed the record on appeal and considered the briefs and arguments of counsel and have concluded that no reversible error has been demonstrated as to the conviction. Wilson v. State, 304 So.2d 119 (Fla.1974).

As to the appellant’s contention that the court erred in sentencing the defendant to fifteen years imprisonment at hard labor we hold that the court erred in specifying hard labor in "the sentence. There is no statutory authority for sentencing a convicted person to hard labor. Therefore the words hard labor are stricken from the sentence and it is affirmed as amended. Speller v. State, 305 So.2d 231 (Fla.2d DCA 1974).

Affirmed.

PEARSON, Judge

(dissenting).

I would reverse because, in my view, reversible error appears upon the failure of the trial judge to follow the requirements which are laid out in McDole v. State, 283 So.2d 553 (Fla.1973), for a conviction based upon a confession.