Opinion ID: 4200163
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Florida’s Felony Battery Statute

Text: Unlike the simple battery statute at issue in Curtis Johnson, Florida’s felony battery statute requires more than a slight unwanted touch. As defined by Florida Statute § 784.041,10 a person commits felony battery if he: 9 The simple battery statute also can be violated by “[i]ntentionally caus[ing] bodily harm to another person.” Fla. Stat. § 784.03(1)(a)(2). But lacking the Shepard documents necessary to determine the basis of the defendant’s conviction—and thus unable to analyze the conviction under the modified categorical approach—the Court in Curtis Johnson assumed the defendant committed simple battery by actually and intentionally touching his victim, which the Court identified as the least of the acts criminalized by the simple battery statute. See Curtis Johnson, 559 U.S. at 137. 10 Florida felony battery under § 784.041, which requires a battery that causes great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement, should be distinguished from Florida 8 Case: 15-10351 Date Filed: 08/25/2017 Page: 9 of 67 (1)(a) [a]ctually and intentionally touches or strikes another person against the will of the other; and (b) [c]auses great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement. Fla. Stat. § 784.041(1) (emphasis added). Thus, in addition to touching or striking a victim against his will, an offender must also cause the victim to suffer significant bodily harm in order to be convicted of felony battery under § 784.041. See id. Florida’s felony battery statute was intended to fill a gap between simple battery, which under Florida Statute § 784.03 is committed when the offender subjects his victim to any type of unwanted physical contact, and aggravated battery, which under Florida Statute § 784.045 is committed when the offender commits a battery and thereby “intentionally or knowingly causes great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement” to his victim. T.S. v. State, 965 So. 2d 1288, 1290 & n.3 (Fla. 2d D.C.A. 2007). All three forms of battery require intentional conduct—at the very minimum a touch—that is against the will of the victim. See id. at 1290 (describing the differences between Florida’s simple, felony, and aggravated battery statutes). The felony battery statute adds felony battery under § 784.03(2), which punishes as a recidivist an offender who has more than one prior battery conviction, and Florida felony battery under § 784.07(2)(b), which applies to an offender who has committed simple battery against a certain kind of victim, such as a police officer. Unless stated otherwise, we are referring to § 784.041 when we use the term “felony battery.” 9 Case: 15-10351 Date Filed: 08/25/2017 Page: 10 of 67 the requirement that the intentional and unwanted touch cause great bodily harm to the victim. See id. The aggravated battery statute in turn adds the requirement that the offender “intended to cause the enhanced level of harm or knew that this level of harm would be caused.” See id. Aggravated battery is thus a specific intent crime, while simple battery and felony battery are crimes of general intent. See id.; Lewis v. State, 817 So. 2d 933, 934 (Fla. 4th D.C.A. 2002) (noting that Florida felony battery is a general intent crime).