Case Name: Michael WARD, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2008-01-17
Citations: 986 So. 2d 479
Docket Number: No. SC06-1764
Parties: Michael WARD, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
Judges: LEWIS, C.J., and WELLS, CANTERO, and BELL, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 986
Pages: 479–491

Head Matter:
Michael WARD, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
No. SC06-1764.
Supreme Court of Florida.
Jan. 17, 2008.
As Revised on Denial of Rehearing July 3, 2008.
Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and Roy A. Heimlich, Assistant Public Defender, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Miami, FL, for Petitioner.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Celia Terenzio, Bureau Chief, and Sue-Ellen Kenny, Assistant Attorneys General, West Palm Beach, FL, for Respondent.

Opinion:
QUINCE, J.
This case is before the Court for review of the decision of the Third District Court of Appeal in Ward v. State, 936 So.2d 1143, 1144 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006). In its decision the district court ruled upon the following question, which the court certified to be of great public importance:
WHETHER A PERSON WHO WAS NOT IN CUSTODY ON JANUARY 1, 1999, IS ELIGIBLE FOR CIVIL COMMITMENT UNDER THE JIMMY RYCE ACT IF THAT PERSON WAS SENTENCED TO TOTAL CONFINEMENT AFTER JANUARY 1, 1999, BUT THE QUALIFYING CONVICTION OCCURRED BEFORE JANUARY 1,1999.
Id. at 1150. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. For the reasons explained below, we answer the question in the affirmative and approve the decision below.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Michael Ward pled guilty to two separate acts of rape in 1969 and two more in 1976. Ward, 936 So.2d at 1144. In 1983, the Third District reversed the 1969 convictions because counsel had misadvised Ward about the consequences of his guilty plea. See Ward v. State, 433 So.2d 1221, 1223 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983). Ward was released from prison on the 1976 offenses in 1993. Ward, 936 So.2d at 1144. In January 2004, Ward was sentenced to thirty-six months in state prison for burglary of an occupied conveyance and possession of burglary tools. Id. No sexual offense was involved in the burglary charge.
In January 2005, the State filed a petition in circuit court seeking Ward's involuntary commitment as a sexually violent predator under the Jimmy Ryce Act (the Act). In re Ward, No. 05-1287 CA32 (Fla. 11th Cir. Jan. 19, 2005). Ward moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that the Act did not authorize either the institution of the commitment proceeding or the commitment sought because he had not been in custody on January 1, 1999, and had not been convicted of any sexually violent offense since the effective date of the Act. In re Ward, No. 05-1287 CA32 (Fla. 11th Cir. Mar. 1, 2005). The trial court ruled that a person incarcerated after the effective date of the Act for an offense not defined as a sexually violent offense, but who had been convicted previously of a sexually violent offense and had been released at the end of his sentence prior to January 1, 1999, is subject to involuntary commitment under the Act. State v. Ward, No. 05-1287 CA32, 2005 WL 697420 (Fla. 11th Cir. Mar. 16, 2005). The trial court also held that the Act applies "to people who are currently incarcerated even for a non-sexual offense and who have been previously convicted for a sexually violent offense." Id. The court also concluded that the Act applies to any person who has ever been convicted of a sexually violent crime and who is thereafter incarcerated for any crime not defined as a sexually violent offense as long as that person is "currently incarcerated when the petition for civil commitment is filed." Id.
Ward petitioned the Third District for a writ of prohibition, arguing that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to proceed because he was not in custody for a sexually violent offense as that term is defined under the Act. Ward, 936 So.2d at 1144. The district court ruled that "under the better reading and interpretation of this section," an individual is subject to the Act "whatever may have been the reason for their qualifying confinement." Id. at 1145. Although the district court denied the writ, it certified the question to this Court as one of great public importance. Id. at 1150.
We granted review without argument and also granted Ward's motion for a stay of his commitment proceedings pending our review of his case.
ANALYSIS
As enacted by the Legislature in chapter 98-64, Laws of Florida, the Jimmy Ryce Act was applicable "to all persons currently in custody who have been convicted of a sexually violent offense . as well as to all persons convicted of a sexually violent offense in the future." Ch. 98-64, § 17, at 454, Laws of Fla. (codified at § 916.45, Fla. Stat. (Supp.1998)). The Act became effective on January 1, 1999. Thus, the civil commitment procedure created by the Act applied to all persons in custody on January 1, 1999, who had been convicted of a sexually violent offense and all persons who are convicted of a sexually violent offense in the future.
In May 1999, the applicability provision was amended, in pertinent part, to provide that the Act applies "to all persons currently in custody who have been convicted of a sexually violent offense . as well as to all persons convicted of a sexually violent offense and sentenced to total confinement in the future." Ch. 99-222, § 20, at 1385, Laws of Fla. (codified at § 394.925, Fla. Stat. (1999)). As defined in the Act, "total confinement" means that the person is currently being held in a secure facility operated by the Department of Corrections (DOC), the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), or the Department of Children and Family Services, or is serving an inearcerative sentence under the custody of DOC or DJJ and is being held in any other secure facility. § 394.912(11), Fla. Stat. (1999). Thus, total confinement means that the person is in state custody.
As amended in 1999, the Act applies in two different circumstances. Under the first clause of section 394.925, the Act applies to all persons in custody on the effective date of the Act, January 1, 1999, who have been convicted of a sexually violent offense. Under the second clause, it applies to those persons who were not in custody on the effective date if they have been convicted of a sexually violent offense and they are sentenced to total confinement after the effective date of the Act, i.e., "in the future." Ward contends that both of the requirements in the second clause of section 394.925 must occur in the future. The State, consistent with the rulings of the trial court and the Third District, contends that the statute only requires that the total confinement occur in the future and that the conviction of a sexually violent offense may have occurred in the past and need not be the basis of the individual's current confinement.
The intent of the Legislature must guide our interpretation of statutory language. That intent must be determined primarily from the language of the statute. Hale v. State, 891 So.2d 517 (Fla.2004); Miele v. Prudential-Bache Sec., Inc., 656 So.2d 470, 471 (Fla.1995). In Hale, we reviewed a case involving an involuntary commitment under the pre-1999 amendment version of the Act. Pertinent to the instant case, Hale claimed that the Act was not applicable to him because he was not currently incarcerated for a sexually violent offense, as defined in the statute. Hale admitted that at some time in the past he had been convicted of a sexually violent offense enumerated in the statute. At the time the State filed the petition seeking his commitment under the Act, however, Hale was incarcerated for dealing in stolen property. This Court concluded that "the Act applies to all persons who are currently incarcerated and who at some point in the past have been convicted of a sexually violent offense." 891 So.2d at 522.
We based our decision in Hale on the plain language of the applicability statute, which "says nothing about whether the person must be currently incarcerated for [the sexually violent] offense," "does not state that it applies to all persons currently in custody for a sexually violent offense," and "does not otherwise link the current incarceration to the sexually violent offense." Id. at 521. We were also persuaded that this was the correct interpretation based on other sections of the Act. For example, we noted that the statute defines a "sexually violent offense" to include federal convictions or convictions from another state. See § 916.32(8)(g), Fla. Stat. (Supp.1998) (renumbered as § 394.912(9)(g), Fla. Stat. (1999)). A person in custody in Florida whose only conviction for a sexually violent offense is from another jurisdiction would not be "in custody" in Florida for a sexually violent offense. Thus, the Legislature need not have included out-of-jurisdiction convictions in the statutory definition of a sexually violent offense if it intended the Act to apply only to those persons whose current incarceration involved a sexually violent offense. Hale, 891 So.2d at 521-22; see also Tabor v. State, 864 So.2d 1171, 1174 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004) (holding that Ryce Act does not require that current incarceration be for a sexually violent offense and cited with approval in Hale). Accordingly, we concluded that the Act applied to all persons who were currently incarcerated and who at some point in the past had been convicted of a sexually violent offense. Hale, 891 So.2d at 522. We explained that this construction "give[s] effect to all statutory provisions and con-struefe] related statutory provisions in harmony with one another." Id. (quoting Forsythe v. Longboat Key Beach Erosion Control Dist., 604 So.2d 452, 455 (Fla.1992)).
Although Hale involved the first clause of the applicability statute (i.e., those in custody at the time the Act took effect) and involved the pre-1999 version of the Act, we find our reasoning in Hale applicable to the instant case. The statutory definition of a sexually violent offense applies to both clause one and clause two of section 394.925 and still includes federal convictions and convictions in other states. See § 394.912(9)(g) (defining "sexually violent offense" as including "any federal conviction or conviction in another state for a felony offense that in this state would be a sexually violent offense"). Thus, the reasoning in Hale is equally applicable to a commitment under clause two of the applicability provision.
In its opinion in Ward, the Third District pointed out a number of statutory provisions in the Act that support the interpretation that the current confinement need not be for a sexual offense as long as the individual has been convicted of a sexually violent offense sometime in the past. See Ward, 936 So.2d at 1147-49. We agree that these other provisions of the Act, when read together with section 394.925, "lead to the conclusion that the legislature did not intend that the [amended] Act apply only to persons currently incarcerated for sexually violent offenses." Hale, 891 So.2d at 521.
Section 394.913(1) requires the agency having custody of an individual to give notice and information to the state attorney and to the multidisciplinary team responsible for determining whether the person meets the definition of a sexually violent predator under the Act. This notice is required not only for persons who have been convicted of a sexual offense in Florida, but also for those whose qualifying sexual offense was a prior conviction in another state or in a federal court. The 1999 amendment also expanded the definition of "total confinement" in section 394.912(10) to include those serving an in-carcerative sentence under the custody of DOC or DJJ or being held in any other secure facility for any reason. The 1999 amendment also included a requirement for DOC to collect information and compile quarterly reports of those individuals meeting the criteria and being referred pursuant to the Act. Ch. 99-222, § 26, at 1388, Laws of Fla. The required information includes "whether the qualifying offense was the current offense or the prior offense." Id. This requirement indicates a legislative intent that either the current or a prior sexually violent offense could be the qualifying offense that makes an individual subject to the Act.
Finally, as the Third District noted in its decision below, this Court's amendment to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.172(c), involving the determination of the voluntariness of a plea, evidences a recognition that an individual is subject to the Act even if his current confinement does not involve a sexually violent offense. See In re Amendments to Fla. Rules of Crim. Pro. 3.172, 911 So.2d 763 (Fla.2005). This Court adopted a new rule requiring a trial judge to inquire whether a defendant understands that his plea to a sexually violent offense or any plea if he "has been previously convicted of such an offense" may subject him to involuntary commitment as a sexually violent predator under the Act. Id. at 765; see also Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.172(c)(9). If a prior conviction could not be the basis for commitment under the Act, there would be no need for this language. In fact, as the Third District noted, "[t]his advice would amount to an incorrect statement of law and have no effect other than engendering unnecessary dread in defendants considering or making pleas if prior convictions for sexually violent offenses could not later be used as a basis for a Ryce Act action." Ward, 936 So.2d at 1149-50.
We also note that there are several problems with the statutory interpretation urged by Ward. First, it would render section 394.912(9)(g), defining a sexually violent offense as including a federal conviction or a conviction in another state, a nullity. Second, there is no rational basis to classify potential sexually violent predators differently based on whether they were incarcerated on the effective date of the Act. The purpose of the Act is to remove the threat posed to society by sexually violent predators by means of involuntarily committing them to long-term care and treatment facilities. This purpose is served equally when the Act is applied to those individuals who were in custody on its effective date and who had been convicted of a sexually violent offense in the past, see Hále, and when the Act is applied to those individuals who were not in custody on the effective date but have also been convicted of a sexually violent offense in the past. Classification as a sexually violent predator does not rest on the vagaries of whether an individual was in custody on the date the Act became effective.
CONCLUSION
Accordingly, based on the other provisions of the statute and our opinion in Hale, we agree with the Third District's interpretation of the applicability of the Act and answer the certified question in the affirmative. Thus, we also agree with the Third District that Ward was subject to the Act based on his prior convictions for sexually violent offenses and his current confinement in state custody. Based on this conclusion, we lift the stay on Ward's commitment proceedings in the circuit court and remand this matter for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
LEWIS, C.J., and WELLS, CANTERO, and BELL, JJ., concur.
ANSTEAD, J., dissents with an opinion, in which PARIENTE, J., concurs.
. See § 394.910-.931, Fla. Stat. (2004). The Act was originally codified in sections 916.31-.49, Florida Statutes (Supp.1998). The Legislature amended the Act in 1999 and moved its provisions to chapter 394. See Ch. 99-222, § 3-24, at 1374-87, Laws of Fla.