Opinion ID: 1595830
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Constitutionality of Section 775.051, Florida Statutes (2004)

Text: Under this challenge, Smith contends that section 775.051, Florida Statutes (2004), which abolished the defense of voluntary intoxication under certain circumstances, violates due process. [18] Smith asserts that section 775.051 is fundamentally different from the voluntary-intoxication-defense abolishment statute upheld by the United States Supreme Court in Montana v. Egelhoff, 518 U.S. 37, 116 S.Ct. 2013, 135 L.Ed.2d 361 (1996), because the Montana statute removed voluntary intoxication across the board from the mens rea inquiry, thereby redefining the mental state for the committed offense. On the other hand, the Florida statute precludes the defense based upon the substance consumed. Thus, according to Smith, section 775.051 does not amount to a redefinition of the mental-state element of specific-intent criminal offenses as did the Montana statute. Rather, the statute unconstitutionally prohibits most, but not all, voluntarily intoxicated defendants from introducing evidence to negate the requisite mental state for commission of an offense. In Egelhoff, the United States Supreme Court upheld a statute, see 518 U.S. at 56, 60, 116 S.Ct. 2013, which provided that voluntary intoxication may not be taken into consideration in determining the existence of a mental state which is an element of [a criminal] offense. 518 U.S. at 39-40, 116 S.Ct. 2013 (plurality opinion). In reaching this determination, the plurality noted that under old English and early American law, defendants were precluded from arguing that, due to intoxication, they could not have possessed the mens rea required to commit the crime. See id. at 44, 116 S.Ct. 2013. The plurality noted that an exception to this common-law rule had been created in more recent years: [B]y the end of the 19th century, in most American jurisdictions, intoxication could be considered in determining whether a defendant was capable of forming the specific intent necessary to commit the crime charged. Id. at 47, 116 S.Ct. 2013. However, the plurality concluded that this exception had not become so deeply rooted in the tradition or conscience of our society as to qualify as a fundamental principle of justice, such that the decision of a state to abolish the exception would be subject to proscription under the Due Process Clause. Id. at 43, 116 S.Ct. 2013 (quoting Patterson v. New York, 432 U.S. 197, 201-02, 97 S.Ct. 2319, 53 L.Ed.2d 281 (1977)). Accordingly, the plurality held that [t]he people of Montana have decided to resurrect the rule of an earlier era, disallowing consideration of voluntary intoxication when a defendant's state of mind is at issue. Nothing in the Due Process Clause prevents them from doing so. Id. at 56, 116 S.Ct. 2013. As with the allocution issue, this Court in Troy considered and rejected a claim that section 775.051 violates due process. In Troy, we adopted the analyses of two Florida district courts that rejected constitutional challenges to section 775.051 and relied on Egelhoff in their analyses: In Florida, two appellate decisions have addressed and upheld the constitutionality of section 775.051. See Barrett v. State, 862 So.2d 44 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003); Cuc v. State, 834 So.2d 378 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003). In Cuc, the defendant alleged that she was denied her right to due process of law under section 775.051 because she was not allowed to raise a defense of voluntary intoxication. 834 So.2d at 378. In affirming her conviction, the Fourth District noted that the statute at issue in Florida was similar to the one upheld in Egelhoff. Id. ... In the case before the Second District, Barrett was convicted of first-degree murder; on appeal, he argued that section 775.051 improperly excludes a class of relevant evidence and lessens the State's burden to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Barrett, 862 So.2d at 45. Barrett conceded that the Florida statute was similar to the statute upheld in Egelhoff, but he argued that Florida's Constitution provides stronger due process protections than does the United States Constitution. Id. at 47, 518 U.S. 37, 116 S.Ct. 2013. The Second District disagreed, holding that there is no basis to conclude that the Florida Constitution provides greater protections to Barrett than does the United States Constitution in relation to the elimination of voluntary intoxication as a defense to a criminal offense. Id. at 48, 518 U.S. 37, 116 S.Ct. 2013. The Barrett court also considered whether section 775.051 effects a substantive change to the mens rea element of criminal conduct or is simply a rule of evidence. Id. at 48. The court found that, based on this Court's precedent in State v. Garcia, 229 So.2d 236, 238 (Fla. 1969), and Caple v. Tuttle's Design-Build, Inc., 753 So.2d 49, 53 (Fla.2000), the change is substantive, in line with Egelhoff: Substantively, section 775.051 addresses the mens rea element of criminal offenses by stating that voluntary intoxication is not a defense to criminal conduct and cannot be used to show that the defendant lacked the specific intent to commit a crime. This is consistent with the State's interest in making persons who voluntarily become intoxicated responsible for their behavior. See Egelhoff, 518 U.S. at 49-50, 116 S.Ct. 2013. However, the statute also addresses procedural matters by excluding, at trial, evidence of voluntary intoxication. Although section 775.051 has both substantive and procedural elements, this does not render the statute constitutionally infirm when the procedural provisions are intimately related to the definition of those substantive rights. See Caple, 753 So.2d at 54. As was the case with the Montana statute under Justice Ginsburg's analysis, section 775.051 effects a substantive change in the definition of mens rea, and it is not simply an evidentiary rule. See Egelhoff, 518 U.S. at 57-60, 116 S.Ct. 2013. Barrett, 862 So.2d at 48 (parallel citations omitted). We find the reasoning and conclusions in Cuc and Barrett to be sound and we adopt that reasoning as our own. 948 So.2d at 644-45. Thus, we have previously determined that section 775.051 does not violate due process. To the extent Smith contends that the statute violates due process (or possibly equal protection) because it allows individuals who ingest illicit substances that are not listed in chapter 893, Florida Statutes (2004), to utilize a defense of voluntary intoxication, this challenge is unpreserved and, therefore, procedurally barred. See Perez, 919 So.2d at 359. The record reflects that Smith did not assert this specific legal challenge before the trial court. The only disparate-treatment contention that Smith argued below was that the statute violates equal protection because it allows a voluntary intoxication defense to be utilized when the person ingests a controlled substance pursuant to a medical prescription, but does not allow the defense for individuals who ingest drugs without a valid prescription. An identical equal-protection claim was decided adversely to Smith in Troy. See 948 So.2d at 645. Accordingly, relief is not warranted on this claim.