Title: State of Florida v. Robert Willis Brooks
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: SC96-400
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: June 7, 2001

Supreme Court of Florida
 
____________
No. SC96400
____________
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Petitioner,
vs.
ROBERT WILLIS BROOKS,
Respondent.
[June 7, 2001]
PER CURIAM.
We initially accepted jurisdiction to review the decision of the Fifth District
Court of Appeal in State v. Brooks, 739 So. 2d 1224, 1225 (Fla. 5th DCA 1999),
which certified a question to be of great public importance.  See art. V, § 3(b)(4),
Fla. Const.  The State requested that Brooks be consolidated with State v. Rife, 26
Fla. L. Weekly S226 (Fla. Apr. 12, 2001), for purposes of oral argument, and we
heard both cases together.  In Rife, we addressed a certified question from the
Fifth District concerning whether a trial court may impose a downward departure
1  The certified question in Brooks was "MAY A REASONABLE MISTAKE
AS TO THE AGE OF THE VICTIM BE CONSIDERED IN MITIGATION" for
purposes of imposing a downward departure sentence upon a defendant convicted of
committing a lewd and lascivious act.  739 So. 2d at 1225.
-2-
sentence upon a defendant convicted of committing a sexual battery based upon
the minor victim's willing participation.  Having answered the certified question in
Rife in the affirmative, and having reviewed the certified question in Brooks, we
conclude that the certified question in Brooks addresses a narrow question based
on the unique facts of that case.1  Therefore, we find that review in Brooks based
on the certified question was improvidently granted and we hereby dismiss the
petition for review.
It is so ordered.
SHAW, HARDING, ANSTEAD, PARIENTE, LEWIS and QUINCE, JJ., concur.
WELLS, C.J., dissents.
NO MOTION FOR REHEARING WILL BE ALLOWED.
Application for Review of the Decision of the District Court of Appeal - 
Certified Great Public Importance
Fifth District - Case No. 5D98-2874 
(Seminole County)
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Ann M. Phillips, Assistant Attorney
General, Daytona Beach, Florida,
for Petitioner
-3-
James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Rosemarie Farrell, Assistant Public
Defender, Seventh Judicial Circuit, Daytona Beach, Florida,
for Respondent