Title: Atwell v. Florida

State: florida

Issuer: Florida Supreme Court

Document:

Supreme Court of Florida 
 
 
____________ 
 
No. SC14-193 
____________ 
 
ANGELO ATWELL,  
Petitioner, 
 
vs. 
 
STATE OF FLORIDA,  
Respondent. 
 
[May 26, 2016] 
 
PARIENTE, J. 
 
Angelo Atwell was sixteen years old when, in August 1990, he committed 
armed robbery and first-degree murder.  Under the statute then in effect, Atwell 
was sentenced for the first-degree murder to a mandatory term of life 
imprisonment, with the possibility of parole after twenty-five years, and was 
sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the armed 
robbery.   
As mandated by the existing statutory scheme, Florida’s parole process 
requires “primary weight” to be given to the “seriousness of the offender’s present 
offense and the offender’s past criminal record.”  See § 947.002, Fla. Stat. (2015).  
 
 
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Under this statutory scheme, twenty-five years after Atwell was sentenced, the 
Commission on Offender Review conducted a parole hearing and set Atwell’s 
presumptive parole release date, which is the earliest date he may be released from 
prison as determined by objective parole guidelines, for the year 2130—one 
hundred and forty years after the crime and far exceeding Atwell’s life expectancy.  
Thus, while technically Atwell is parole-eligible, it is a virtual certainty that Atwell 
will spend the rest of his life in prison.  
 
The issue we consider is whether Atwell’s sentence for first-degree murder 
is constitutional, in light of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. 
Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455, 2469 (2012), which held that the Eighth Amendment 
“forbids a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without possibility of 
parole for juvenile offenders.”  We conclude that Florida’s existing parole system, 
as set forth by statute, does not provide for individualized consideration of 
Atwell’s juvenile status at the time of the murder, as required by Miller, and that 
his sentence, which is virtually indistinguishable from a sentence of life without 
parole, is therefore unconstitutional. 
 
Our conclusion is supported by three factors.  First, it is consistent with this 
Court’s precedent involving juvenile sentencing cases that has followed the spirit 
of the United States Supreme Court’s recent juvenile sentencing jurisprudence, 
rather than an overly narrow interpretation.  For example, this Court in Henry v. 
 
 
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State, 175 So. 3d 675 (Fla. 2015), recently rejected a similarly narrow reading as 
the one the State offers of Miller here, in concluding that the underlying premise of 
the Supreme Court’s related decision in Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (2010), 
controlled over a reading that would have confined the scope of Graham to only 
sentences denominated as “life” imprisonment.   
Second, our conclusion is consistent with Miller itself, which emphasized 
that sentencing courts must take into account “how children are different, and how 
those differences counsel against irrevocably sentencing them to a lifetime in 
prison”—factors Florida’s parole process entirely fails to recognize.  Miller, 132 S. 
Ct. at 2469.  Indeed, the Supreme Court even explicitly noted that its decision 
“requires factfinders . . . to take into account the differences among defendants and 
crimes.”  Id. at 2469 n.8.   
This requirement of individualized sentencing considerations for juvenile 
offenders was reiterated by the Supreme Court in its recent decision in 
Montgomery v. Louisiana, 136 S. Ct. 718 (2016), which emphasized that Miller 
requires prisoners sentenced as juveniles “must be given the opportunity to show 
their crime did not reflect irreparable corruption; and, if it did not, their hope for 
some years of life outside prison walls must be restored.”  Montgomery, 136 S. Ct. 
at 736-37.  In Montgomery, the Supreme Court held that States would not 
necessarily have to “relitigate sentences, let alone convictions” to comply with 
 
 
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Miller but could parole certain juvenile offenders “whose crimes reflected only 
transient immaturity—and who have since matured,” so that those juvenile 
offenders “will not be forced to serve a disproportionate sentence in violation of 
the Eighth Amendment.”  Id. at 736. 
Although the pre-1994 first-degree murder statute under which Atwell was 
sentenced provided for parole eligibility, it remained a mandatory sentence that 
treated juveniles exactly like adults and precluded any individualized sentencing 
consideration.  The current parole process similarly fails to take into account the 
offender’s juvenile status at the time of the offense, and effectively forces juvenile 
offenders to serve disproportionate sentences of the kind forbidden by Miller. 
Finally, our conclusion is consistent with the legislative intent in Florida 
after the issuance of the Graham and Miller decisions.  Rather than offer parole as 
a means of complying with the principles established by the Supreme Court, the 
Florida Legislature chose instead to enact a wholly new and distinct sentencing 
framework for juvenile offenders, offering term-of-years sentencing options for 
trial courts and providing for subsequent judicial review of lengthy sentences.  See 
Horsley v. State, 160 So. 3d 393, 407 (Fla. 2015).  Our conclusion that Miller is 
implicated in this case accordingly aligns both with this Court’s holding that Miller 
applies retroactively—a result the United States Supreme Court recently reached in 
Montgomery—and with our determination in Falcon v. State, 162 So. 3d 954 (Fla. 
 
 
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2015), that the “patent unfairness” of treating similar juvenile offenders differently 
“based solely on when their cases were decided” must be remedied.  Id. at 962. 
 
For these reasons, and all other reasons fully explained in this opinion, we 
quash the Fourth District Court of Appeal’s underlying decision upholding 
Atwell’s sentence for first-degree murder.  See Atwell v. State, 128 So. 3d 167, 
169 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013).  We remand this case for resentencing on the first-
degree murder count in conformance with chapter 2014-220, Laws of Florida, 
which has been codified in sections 775.082, 921.1401, and 921.1402 of the 
Florida Statutes.  See Horsley, 160 So. 3d at 395.  Under that sentencing 
framework, the sentencing court is authorized to impose a sentence from 40 years 
to life imprisonment after considering youth-related sentencing factors. 
Importantly, unlike the parole system in place, the juvenile offender’s sentence is 
reviewed by a trial judge after 25 years, who then determines whether a sentence 
modification is warranted after reviewing, among other factors, the juvenile 
offender’s youth and its attendant characteristics at the time of the offense, the 
opinion of the victim or the victim’s next of kin concerning the release of the 
juvenile offender from prison, and whether the juvenile offender remains at the 
same level of risk to society as he or she did at the time of the initial 
sentencing.  But see § 921.1402(2)(a), Fla. Stat. (2015) (specifying certain 
 
 
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instances where review is not authorized, such as when the juvenile offender was 
previously convicted of a separate criminal offense). 
FACTS AND BACKGROUND 
  In 1992, Atwell was convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery.  
He was sixteen years old at the time of the offenses, which occurred on August 30, 
1990.  As for the armed robbery, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of 
parole.1  
As for the murder conviction, the only sentencing options under the 
sentencing scheme then in effect were either death or life in prison with the 
possibility of parole after twenty-five years.  Specifically, the relevant Florida 
statute for first-degree murder then provided: 
A person who has been convicted of a capital felony shall be 
punished by life imprisonment and shall be required to serve no less 
than 25 years before becoming eligible for parole, unless the 
proceeding held to determine sentence according to the procedure set 
forth in section 921.141 results in findings by the court that such 
person shall be punished by death, and in the latter event such person 
shall be punished by death.  
                                          
 
 
1.  Atwell’s mandatory life sentence for armed robbery is clearly 
unconstitutional under Graham but is not the subject of this appeal.  As the Fourth 
District Court of Appeal stated, Atwell did not raise the Graham claim in the trial 
court.  See Atwell, 128 So. 3d at 169.  Because an illegal sentencing claim must 
first be presented to the trial court, we do not address Atwell’s claim on appeal that 
his life without parole sentence for armed robbery is unconstitutional.  We note, 
however, that Atwell may file a proper motion in the trial court, under Florida Rule 
of Criminal Procedure 3.800, to seek correction of this sentence.   
 
 
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§ 775.082(1), Fla. Stat. (1989).2  This statute was later amended by chapter 94-228, 
section 1, Laws of Florida, which became effective May 25, 1994, to eliminate 
parole.  The post-1994 statute provided instead for a sentence of either death or life 
without the possibility of parole for a first-degree murder conviction.3   
In February 2013, Atwell moved for postconviction relief, contending that 
his life sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment under Miller.  The trial 
court summarily denied Atwell’s motion, concluding both that Miller did not apply 
retroactively—a conclusion this Court has since rejected—and that Atwell’s 
sentence was not unconstitutional under Miller because he is eligible for parole.   
                                          
 
 
2.  Because Atwell’s sentencing occurred prior to the time at which the death 
penalty was declared unconstitutional for juveniles, a penalty phase was held.  By a 
vote of seven to five, the jury recommended a life sentence.  
3.  The post-1994 statute, which was in effect until the recent 
legislative changes in response to Graham and Miller became effective on 
July 1, 2014, provided:  
A person who has been convicted of a capital felony shall be 
punished by death if the proceeding held to determine sentence 
according to the procedure set forth in s. 921.141 results in findings 
by the court that such person shall be punished by death, otherwise 
such person shall be punished by life imprisonment and: 
(a)  If convicted of murder in the first degree or of a capital 
felony under s. 790.161, shall be ineligible for parole.  
§ 775.082(1)(a), Fla. Stat. (Supp. 1994).   
 
 
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On appeal, the Fourth District affirmed the trial court’s denial of Atwell’s 
motion for postconviction relief, holding that Atwell “did not establish an illegal 
sentence that can be corrected at any time” under the Florida Rules of Criminal 
Procedure.  Atwell, 128 So. 3d at 169.  Explaining that “the underpinning of the 
holding of both Miller and Graham was the ineligibility for release on parole,” the 
Fourth District concluded that “Miller is inapplicable because Miller applies only 
to a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.”  Id.    
Following the Fourth District’s denial of rehearing, Atwell petitioned this 
Court to invoke its discretionary jurisdiction, asserting that the Fourth District 
expressly construed a provision of the federal constitution.  See art. V, § 3(b)(3), 
Fla. Const.  We granted jurisdiction and considered both merits briefs and 
supplemental briefs after the issuance of our other recent juvenile sentencing 
decisions.   
While the case was pending in this Court, the Commission on Offender 
Review conducted a parole hearing on June 10, 2015, which was twenty-five years 
after Atwell had been sentenced, and entered an order on June 12, 2015.  Based on 
Atwell’s initial parole interview, the Commission set a presumptive parole release 
date of December 27, 2130, with another interview in February 2022.  However, in 
February 2022, when Atwell will be forty-seven years of age, his presumptive 
parole release date will be able to be changed only for “reasons of institutional 
 
 
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conduct or the acquisition of new information.” § 947.16(5), Fla. Stat.  Because 
static factors, such as the crime he committed and his other crimes, including 
armed robbery, account for all but 84 of the 1,686 months (140.5 years), there is no 
realistic chance of a change in the presumptive parole release date.  Clearly, a 
release date in 2130 (1,686 months or 140.5 years) far exceeds Atwell’s life 
expectancy. 
ANALYSIS 
Our analysis of the constitutionality of Atwell’s sentence begins with the 
United States Supreme Court’s recent juvenile sentencing jurisprudence and how 
this Court has applied that precedent in juvenile sentencing cases.  We then discuss 
the statutory framework of Florida’s existing parole system.  Finally, mindful of 
the Legislature’s enactment of a distinct sentencing framework for juvenile 
offenders in the wake of Miller and Graham, we analyze whether Florida’s parole 
system provides for the individualized consideration of a defendant’s youth at the 
time of the offense in compliance with Miller. 
I.  Recent Juvenile Sentencing Jurisprudence 
Over the past decade, the United States Supreme Court has recognized that 
juveniles are constitutionally different than adults with respect to the law’s harshest 
criminal sentences.  Beginning with its decision in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 
551, 568 (2005), in which it held that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments bar 
 
 
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the imposition of the death penalty on any individual who was a juvenile at the 
time the capital crime was committed, the Supreme Court has emphasized juvenile 
offenders’ “diminished culpability” and greater likelihood of rehabilitation. 
Building on the rationale of Roper, the Supreme Court held in Graham “that 
for a juvenile offender who did not commit homicide the Eighth Amendment 
forbids the sentence of life without parole.”  Graham, 560 U.S. at 74.  As the 
Supreme Court subsequently explained, Graham insists that a defendant’s “youth 
matters in determining the appropriateness of a lifetime of incarceration without 
the possibility of parole” because “the characteristics of youth” serve to “weaken 
rationales for punishment.”  Miller, 132 S. Ct. at 2465, 2466.   
Two years after deciding Graham, the Supreme Court held in Miller that 
“the Eighth Amendment forbids a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison 
without possibility of parole for juvenile offenders.”  Id. at 2469.  The Supreme 
Court explained that its decision mandates that a sentencer consider an offender’s 
“youth and attendant characteristics” before “imposing a particular penalty.”  Id. at 
2471.  “Taken together, Graham and Miller establish that ‘children are different’; 
that ‘youth matters for purposes of meting out the law’s most serious 
punishments’; and that ‘a judge or jury must have the opportunity to consider 
mitigating circumstances before imposing the harshest possible penalty for 
 
 
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juveniles.’ ”  Horsley, 160 So. 3d at 399 (quoting Miller, 132 S. Ct. at 2469, 2471, 
2475).     
In the aftermath of Graham and Miller, this Court has confronted several 
issues that have required us to consider how those cases affect juvenile sentencing 
in Florida.  In Falcon, this Court held that the Supreme Court’s decision in Miller 
applies retroactively to juvenile offenders whose convictions and sentences were 
already final at the time Miller was decided.  Falcon, 162 So. 3d at 956.  In 
Horsley, this Court held that the appropriate remedy for any juvenile offender 
whose sentence is unconstitutional under Miller is to apply chapter 2014-220, 
Laws of Florida—legislation enacted by the Florida Legislature in 2014 to bring 
Florida’s sentencing laws into compliance with the Graham and Miller decisions.  
Horsley, 160 So. 3d at 409.   
This Court has also considered several juvenile sentencing cases that 
implicate Graham.  In Henry, this Court concluded that Graham prohibits 
sentencing juvenile nonhomicide offenders to aggregate prison terms that ensure 
those offenders will be imprisoned without obtaining a meaningful opportunity to 
obtain release, based on their maturity and rehabilitation, and that resentencing 
pursuant to chapter 2014-220, Laws of Florida, is the proper remedy for any 
sentence that violates Graham.  Henry, 175 So. 3d at 680.  Similarly, in Gridine v. 
State, this Court established that for a defendant convicted of attempted murder, a 
 
 
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seventy-year sentence is unconstitutional because it fails to provide a “meaningful 
opportunity for early release.”  175 So. 3d 672, 674-75 (Fla. 2015). 
And, in Lawton v. State, this Court held that the Supreme Court’s ban on 
sentencing juveniles to life without parole for nonhomicide offenses is unqualified, 
even if the juvenile committed a homicide during the same criminal episode.  181 
So. 3d 452 (Fla. 2015).  This Court concluded that Graham’s categorical rule 
leaves no room for the “homicide-case exception” previously recognized by some 
Florida district courts.  Id. at 453. 
 
The unifying theme of these unanimous decisions has been our recognition 
of what “flows straightforwardly from [the Supreme Court’s] precedents: 
specifically, the principle of Roper, Graham, and [the Supreme Court’s] 
individualized sentencing cases that youth matters for purposes of meting out the 
law’s most serious punishments.”  Miller, 132 S. Ct. at 2471.  The “most serious 
punishments” at issue in our recent juvenile sentencing cases have all involved 
sentences without the possibility of parole, which is true of most sentences in 
Florida since the mid-1980s and of all sentences, including those for first-degree 
murder, since the mid-1990s.   
But even though the Legislature has eliminated parole in Florida, there are 
still inmates—those sentenced before its elimination—who remain eligible for 
 
 
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parole consideration.4  And for those parole-eligible inmates who were juveniles at 
the time of the crime, the question remains whether the principles articulated in 
Graham and Miller have any application. 
The State argues that Atwell’s sentence is not unconstitutional because 
Miller unambiguously applies only to mandatorily imposed life without parole 
sentences.  Because Atwell’s sentence is not “without parole,” the State asserts, it 
is not unconstitutional under Miller.  To the State, it is quite literally as simple as 
that. 
However, throughout this Court’s post-Graham and Miller juvenile 
sentencing jurisprudence, we have consistently followed the spirit of Graham and 
Miller rather than a narrow, literal interpretation.  For example, in Henry, this 
Court stated that “[i]n light of the United States Supreme Court’s long-held and 
consistent view that juveniles are different—with respect to prison sentences that 
are lawfully imposable on adults convicted for the same criminal offenses—we 
conclude that, when tried as an adult, the specific sentence that a juvenile 
                                          
 
 
4.  Although Florida’s sentencing statutes no longer provide for parole, there 
are still approximately 4,626 inmates, sentenced before its elimination, who remain 
eligible for parole consideration as of July 1, 2014.  See Fla. Comm’n on Offender 
Review 2014 Annual Report 6, 8, available at 
https://www.fcor.state.fl.us/docs/reports/FCORannualreport201314.pdf.  In the 
fiscal year 2013-2014, only 23 of the approximately 4,626 eligible inmates, half a 
percent, were granted parole.  Id. at 6. 
 
 
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nonhomicide offender receives for committing a given offense is not dispositive as 
to whether the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment is implicated.”  
Henry, 175 So. 3d at 680.  This Court then recognized, as the Supreme Court itself 
had done, that “[c]ategorical rules tend to be imperfect” and accordingly 
determined that the Graham Court had “no intention of limiting its new categorical 
rule to sentences denominated under the exclusive term of ‘life in prison.’ ”  Id. at 
679-80.   
Other state supreme courts have interpreted Miller similarly to how this 
Court has interpreted Graham, noting that “nothing [the United States Supreme 
Court] has said [about children] is ‘crime-specific,’ suggesting the natural 
concomitant that what it said is not punishment-specific either.”  State v. Lyle, 854 
N.W.2d 378, 399 (Iowa 2014) (holding that all mandatory minimum sentences of 
imprisonment for juvenile offenders are unconstitutional).   
The Iowa Supreme Court, in fact, confronted a similar challenge in State v. 
Ragland, 836 N.W.2d 107 (Iowa 2013).  There, the defendant was mandatorily 
sentenced to life in prison without parole.  After Miller was issued, the Governor 
of Iowa commuted Ragland’s sentence, along with the sentences of thirty-seven 
other juvenile offenders, to life sentences with the possibility of parole in sixty 
years.  Id. at 110-11.  The Iowa Supreme Court concluded that this action was 
unconstitutional and reasoned that “[f]or all practical purposes, the same 
 
 
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motivation behind the mandates of Miller applies to the commuted sentence in this 
case or any sentence that is the practical equivalent to life without parole.”  Id. at 
121 (emphasis added).  The Iowa Supreme Court further noted that “it is important 
that the spirit of the law not be lost in the application of the law.”  Id.  Therefore, 
the Iowa Supreme Court remanded the Ragland case for resentencing in 
accordance with Miller.  Id. at 122.  
Though it did not reference the Iowa case, this Court applied similar 
reasoning in its Henry and Gridine holdings, concluding that lengthy term-of-years 
sentences can implicate Graham as unconstitutional for juveniles if those sentences 
fail to provide for the critical mechanism—a meaningful opportunity for release—
at the heart of the Graham holding.  Indeed, we did so even though those sentences 
were not technically labeled as “life in prison.”  See Henry, 175 So. 3d at 680; 
Gridine, 175 So. 3d at 674-75.  This Court also acknowledged in Horsley that 
Miller stands for the proposition that “youth matters for purposes of meting out the 
law’s most serious punishments” and that the Eighth Amendment categorically 
prohibits certain punishments without “considering a juvenile’s ‘lessened 
culpability’ and greater ‘capacity for change.’ ”  Horsley, 160 So. 3d at 398-99 
(quoting Miller, 132 S. Ct at 2460).   
It is thus evident from our case law that this Court has—and must—look 
beyond the exact sentence denominated as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court 
 
 
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and examine the practical implications of the juvenile’s sentence, in the spirit of 
the Supreme Court’s juvenile sentencing jurisprudence.  We accordingly apply 
those principles to the sentence in this case. 
II.  Florida’s Existing Parole System 
In order to determine whether the eligibility for parole removes a sentence 
from the purview of Graham and Miller, it is necessary to first understand how 
parole operates in Florida.  Parole is the release of an inmate, prior to the 
expiration of the inmate’s court-imposed sentence, with a period of supervision to 
be successfully completed by compliance with conditions and terms of the release 
agreement ordered by the Florida Commission on Offender Review.  See William 
H. Burgess, Fla. Sentencing § 12:18 (2015-16 ed.). See also Florida Parole 
Comm’n v. Spaziano, 48 So. 3d 714, 721-22 (Fla. 2010).  The judiciary has no 
input as to the operation of the parole system. 
An inmate who is eligible for parole has an initial interview with a hearing 
examiner.  That examiner uses a salient factor score—a numerical score based on 
the offender’s present and prior criminal behavior and related factors found to be 
predictive in regard to parole outcome—as well as the statutory severity of the 
inmate’s offense to determine a corresponding range of months on a matrix that 
automatically indicates a range of presumptive parole release dates.  See Spaziano, 
48 So. 3d at 722 n.7.  The presumptive parole release dates are the earliest dates an 
 
 
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offender may be released from prison as determined by objective parole guidelines.  
Id. 
Under Florida statutory law, the objective parole criteria applied by the 
Commission must “give primary weight to the seriousness of the offender’s present 
criminal offense and the offender’s past criminal record.”  § 947.002, Fla. Stat. 
(2015).  The hearing examiner may consider the aggravating and mitigating 
circumstances—none of which provide for the level of consideration of the 
diminished culpability of youth at the time of the offense as sentencing judges now 
consider post-Miller—that warrant a decision outside the given matrix time range, 
but must provide written justification for altering the presumptive parole release 
date.  See § 947.172(3), Fla. Stat. (2015); see also Spaziano, 48 So. 3d at 723.  The 
hearing examiner then makes a written recommendation to the Commission of a 
presumptive parole release date, which is reviewed by a panel of no fewer than two 
commissioners appointed by the chair.  § 947.172(2), Fla. Stat. (2015).   
Subsequent parole interviews are conducted to determine whether 
information has been gathered that could affect the presumptive parole release 
date.  § 947.174, Fla. Stat. (2015).  When the inmate’s presumptive parole release 
date nears and if the inmate’s institutional conduct and parole release plan are 
satisfactory, the presumptive parole release date becomes the effective parole 
release date.  § 947.1745, Fla. Stat. (2015).  The Commission then engages in a 
 
 
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final review process to determine if release is still appropriate and will authorize or 
modify the effective parole release date accordingly.  Id.   
III.  Atwell’s Sentence Under Florida’s Existing Parole System 
In most respects, a sentence of life with the possibility of parole for first-
degree murder, based on the way Florida’s parole process operates under the 
existing statutory scheme, actually resembles a mandatorily imposed life sentence 
without parole that is not “proportionate to the offense and the offender.”  Horsley, 
160 So. 3d at 406.  Based on Florida’s objective parole guidelines, an individual 
who was convicted of a capital offense under section 775.082, Florida Statutes 
(1990), as Atwell was, will have a presumptive parole release date of anywhere 
from 300 to 9,998 months in the future.  Fla. Admin. Code R. 23-21.009 (2014).  
Importantly, the statute requires “primary weight” in the consideration of parole to 
be given “to the seriousness of the offender’s present offense”—here, the most 
serious offense of first-degree murder—“and the offender’s past criminal record.”  
§ 947.002, Fla. Stat.   
If an offender convicted of first-degree murder has a high salient score, that 
offender’s range of months for the presumptive parole release date could span from 
hundreds of months to nearly ten thousand months.  Fla. Admin. Code R. 23-
21.009 (2014).  This range of months, which encompasses hundreds of years, 
could be lawfully imposed without the Commission on Offender Review even 
 
 
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considering mitigating circumstances.  The Commission is only required to 
consider mitigating and aggravating circumstances if it wishes to impose a 
presumptive parole release date that falls outside the given range of months.  Fla. 
Admin. Code R. 23-21.010 (2010).  Further, the enumerated mitigating and 
aggravating circumstances in rule 23-21.010 of the Florida Administrative Code, 
even if utilized, do not have specific factors tailored to juveniles.  In other words, 
they completely fail to account for Miller.   
Using Florida’s objective parole guidelines, then, a sentence for first-degree 
murder under the pre-1994 statute is virtually guaranteed to be just as lengthy as, 
or the “practical equivalent” of, a life sentence without the possibility of parole. 
Indeed, that is the case here, with Atwell’s presumptive parole release date having 
recently been set to 140 years in the future.   
A presumptive parole release date set decades beyond a natural lifespan is at 
odds with the Supreme Court’s recent pronouncement in Montgomery.  Although a 
State’s remedy to Miller could include a system for paroling certain juvenile 
offenders “whose crimes reflected only transient immaturity—and who have since 
matured,” the parole system would nevertheless still have to afford juvenile 
offenders individualized consideration and an opportunity for release.  
Montgomery, 136 S. Ct. 718, 736 (2016).  Most importantly, “their hope for some 
years of life outside prison walls must be restored.”  Id. at 737. 
 
 
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The United States Supreme Court concluded its Miller opinion by 
emphasizing that “Graham, Roper, and [the Supreme Court’s] individualized 
sentencing decisions make clear that a judge or jury must have the opportunity to 
consider mitigating circumstances before imposing the harshest possible penalty 
for juveniles.”  Miller, 132 S. Ct. at 2475.  Even a cursory examination of the 
statutes and administrative rules governing Florida’s parole system demonstrates 
that a juvenile who committed a capital offense could be subject to one of the law’s 
harshest penalties without the sentencer, or the Commission, ever considering 
mitigating circumstances.   
Although some states, such as California5 and West Virginia,6 have chosen 
the parole process as a way to satisfy Graham and Miller,7 the requirements of the 
parole process vary significantly from state to state.  For example, California 
adopted legislation that provides a mechanism for resentencing juveniles who 
initially had life without parole sentences, allowing for parole eligibility and 
review hearings, but this legislation also established that the parole board must use 
                                          
 
 
5.  See Cal. Penal Code § 4801(c) (2013). 
 
6.  See W. Va. Code § 62-12-13b(b) (2015). 
 
7.  Numerous other states, including Delaware and North Carolina, have 
modified their criminal sentencing guidelines to allow for more judicial discretion 
when sentencing juveniles.  See Sarah French Russell, Review for Release: 
Juvenile Offenders, State Parole Practices and the Eighth Amendment, 89 Ind. L.J. 
388, 391 (2014).   
 
 
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specific criteria when evaluating juveniles and must “give great weight to the 
diminished culpability of juveniles as compared to adults, the hallmark features of 
youth, and any subsequent growth and increased maturity of the prisoner in 
accordance with relevant case law.”  Cal. Penal Code § 4801(c) (2013).  These are 
the features identified by the Supreme Court in Miller.  See 132 S. Ct. at 2468-69.  
Similarly, West Virginia now requires its parole board to take into consideration 
the “diminished culpability of juveniles” during its parole hearings for juvenile 
offenders.  W. Va. Code § 62-12-13b(b) (2015).   
In Florida, however, the decision to parole an inmate “is an act of grace of 
the state and shall not be considered a right.”  § 947.002(5), Fla. Stat.  By statute, 
the objective parole criteria must “give primary weight to the seriousness of the 
offender’s present criminal offense and the offender’s past criminal record.”  
§ 947.002(2), Fla. Stat.  Importantly, unlike other states, there are no special 
protections expressly afforded to juvenile offenders and no consideration of the 
diminished culpability of the youth at the time of the offense.  The Miller factors 
are simply not part of the equation.  
Moreover, as we observed in Horsley, the Florida Legislature did not choose 
a parole-based approach to remedy sentences that are unconstitutional under 
Graham and Miller.  160 So. 3d at 407.  Instead, the Legislature chose to enact 
chapter 2014-220, Laws of Florida, and to use substantively different criteria for 
 
 
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evaluation, specifically tailored to juveniles and based on the Miller factors.  Id.  
Also, at the judicial sentence review hearing under chapter 2014-220, Laws of 
Florida, the trial court is required to consider the enumerated Miller factors of 
section 921.1402(6), Florida Statutes, along with any other factor it deems 
appropriate to review the juvenile’s sentence.  See § 921.1402(6), Fla. Stat. (2015).   
Parole is, simply put, “patently inconsistent with the legislative intent” as to how to 
comply with Graham and Miller.  Horsley, 160 So. 3d at 395. 
CONCLUSION 
In Falcon, when considering the retroactivity of Miller, this Court noted that 
“[c]onsiderations of fairness and uniformity make it very ‘difficult to justify 
depriving a person of his liberty or his life, under process no longer considered 
acceptable and no longer applied to indistinguishable cases.’ ”  Falcon, 162 So. 3d 
at 962 (quoting Witt v. State, 387 So. 2d 922, 925 (Fla. 1980)).  The drastically 
different processes for rehabilitating “indistinguishable juvenile offenders” 
evidence the “patent unfairness” of applying different remedies.  Id.   
When Atwell was sentenced for first-degree murder, the sentencing statute 
provided only for the death penalty or life in prison with the possibility of parole 
after twenty-five years.  This pre-1994 statute allowed for a capital sentencing 
hearing, but mitigation was presented only to decide between the two harsh 
sentences Atwell could receive, not for the purpose of individualizing Atwell’s 
 
 
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sentence based on his juvenile status.  The trial court was not able to consider how 
“children are different and how those differences counsel against irrevocably 
sentencing them to a lifetime in prison.”  Miller, 132 S. Ct. at 2469.  Even though 
Atwell was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after twenty-five years, 
under Florida’s existing parole system, the earliest date Atwell may be released 
from prison as determined by objective parole guidelines is the year 2130, or one 
hundred and forty years after Atwell’s crime.  Atwell, then, has no “hope for some 
years of life outside prison walls.”  Montgomery, 136 S. Ct. at 737.  
The Supreme Court has emphasized—and this Court’s own case law has 
followed—that the Eighth Amendment requires a trial court to “take into account 
the differences among defendants and crimes” before imposing a sentence that is, 
in effect, a sentence to a lifetime in prison.  Miller, 132 S. Ct. at 2469 n.8; see 
Horsley, 160 So. 3d at 399; Falcon, 162 So. 3d at 959.  Atwell’s sentence 
effectively resembles a mandatorily imposed life without parole sentence, and he 
did not receive the type of individualized sentencing consideration Miller requires.  
The only way to correct Atwell’s sentence, consistent with this Court’s case law in 
Horsley, is to resentence Atwell in conformance with chapter 2014-220, Laws of 
Florida. 
 
 
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Accordingly, for all these reasons, we quash the Fourth District’s decision 
upholding Atwell’s life sentence for first-degree murder and we remand for 
resentencing on that count. 
It is so ordered. 
LABARGA, C.J., and QUINCE, and PERRY, JJ., concur. 
POLSTON, J., dissents with an opinion, in which LEWIS and CANADY, JJ., 
concur. 
 
NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION, AND 
IF FILED, DETERMINED. 
 
POLSTON, J., dissenting. 
 
I would approve the Fourth District Court of Appeal’s decision in Atwell v. 
State, 128 So. 3d 167 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013), that the defendant’s life sentence with 
the possibility of parole does not violate the Eighth Amendment.   
Although the majority takes issue with the extended presumptive parole 
release date, section 947.174, Florida Statutes, requires a subsequent interview to 
review this date within 7 years of the initial interview and once every 7 years after 
that.  As explained in Franklin v. State, 141 So. 3d 210 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014), by 
Judge Ray in the majority opinion, and Judge Thomas in his concurring opinion, 
this statutorily required review satisfies the Eighth Amendment.  Graham v. 
Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (2010), and Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012), do not 
require that parole be given, only that the defendant has a meaningful opportunity 
for release.  See Franklin, 141 So. 3d at 212.  Pursuant to section 947.174(3), 
 
 
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Florida Statutes, the presumptive release date is reviewed periodically in light of 
information “including, but not limited to, current progress reports, psychological 
reports, and disciplinary reports.”  This review should include the type of 
individualized consideration sought by the majority.  Moreover, judicial review 
may be sought of these parole decisions as they are made.  See Franklin, 141 So. 
3d at 212. 
The majority’s decision reaches too far into the merits of a parole process 
not at issue in this case because of the majority’s unjustified perception and 
suspicion of the Parole Commission’s periodic review.  I respectfully dissent. 
LEWIS and CANADY, JJ., concur. 
Application for Review of the Decision of the District Court of Appeal - Direct 
Conflict of Decisions  
 
 
Fourth District - Case No. 4D13-1972 
 
 
(Broward County) 
 
Carol Stafford Haughwout, Public Defender, and Paul Edward Petillo, Assistant 
Public Defender, Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, West Palm Beach, Florida, 
 
 
for Petitioner 
 
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida; Consiglia Terenzio, 
Bureau Chief, and Heidi Lynn Bettendorf, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm 
Beach, Florida,  
 
 
for Respondent 
 
 
 
 
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Paolo Giuseppe Annino, Florida State University College of Law, Tallahassee, 
Florida, 
 
 
for Amicus Curiae Public Interest Law Center