Opinion ID: 1702151
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Klayman

Text: In Klayman, this Court held that Fiore applied to a decision that had come before the Court on certified conflict. We determined that a defendant could not be legally convicted of drug trafficking under the law as properly interpreted. Specifically, this Court held in Klayman that this Court's decision in Hayes v. State, 750 So.2d 1 (Fla.1999), was a clarification of extant law under Fiore and that Klayman was entitled to the benefit of that subsequent clarification of the drug trafficking statute. See Klayman, 835 So.2d at 254-55. Until we decided Hayes, a defendant possessing an identical amount of tablets containing hydrocodone under identical circumstances could be convicted of drug trafficking in the Fourth and Fifth Districts but not in the First and Second Districts. [34] Individuals convicted of drug trafficking are subject to a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of twenty-five years and a mandatory fine of $500,000. See Hayes, 750 So.2d at 2 (citing section 893.135(1)(c)(1), Florida Statutes (Supp.1996)). On the other hand, under a proper interpretation of the provision the only possible crime by defendants possessing tablets containing 15 milligrams of hydrocodone would be unauthorized possession of a Schedule III substance, a third-degree felony punishable by a term of imprisonment not to exceed five years. See id., at 2 (citing section 893.13(1)(a)2, Florida Statutes (Supp.1996), and section 775.082(3)(d), Florida Statutes (1995)). The effect of our opinion in Hayes was to provide a clarified definition of trafficking in hydrocodone which excluded conduct under which defendants in the Fourth and Fifth Districts had been convicted. This is why this Court properly held in Klayman that Hayes was a clarification of the drug trafficking statute that, under Fiore, applied to a defendant whose conviction of trafficking in hydrocodone became final before the decision in Hayes.