Opinion ID: 1920305
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Continued Validity of Thompson

Text: Initially, we address the State's assertion that the decision in Thompson v. State, 695 So.2d 691 (Fla.1997), has been altered by subsequent decisions of this Court, and thus the question of whether that decision is retroactive has been rendered moot. The State's claim is misplaced. The issue presented in Thompson was whether knowledge of the victim's status as a law enforcement officer is an element of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer under subsection (3) of section 784.07, Florida Statutes (1993). Thompson, 695 So.2d at 692. There, we held that knowledge of the victim's status as a law enforcement officer is a necessary element of the offense. See id. Importantly, we wrote: Whether knowledge of the officer's status did or did not exist in a particular case is a factual finding to be left to the jury. While the jury's status as fact finder implicates the notion that a substantive offense has been created under the statute, we need not reach this question to resolve the issue here. Id. at 693. The Thompson Court determined that knowledge was an element of a violation of section 784.07(3), but refused to classify section 784.07(3) of the Florida Statutes (1993) as either a substantive offense or a sentencing enhancement. See Thompson, 695 So.2d at 693. Contrary to the State's position, this Court's decisions in Merritt v. State, 712 So.2d 384 (Fla.1998), and Mills v. State, 822 So.2d 1284 (Fla.2002), did not modify the Thompson holding, and the decision in Thompson remains valid, unaltered controlling authority today. In Merritt, this Court held that attempted assault, attempted battery, and attempted aggravated assault and battery of a law enforcement officer are nonexistent offenses. See Merritt, 712 So.2d at 385. In so holding, we wrote: Section 784.07, Florida Statutes (1995), is an enhancement statute rather than a statute creating and defining any criminal offense. Id. Notably, Thompson was not cited in the opinion, nor was there any issue presented or discussed regarding a knowledge element of the offense of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer. Our recent decision in Mills clarified that, even though our reference in Merritt that section 784.07 addresses the concept of enhancement, this statute actually reclassifies the enumerated offenses based upon the status of the victim. See Mills, 822 So.2d at 1287. The issue presented in Mills was whether a defendant, who had been convicted of battery on a law enforcement officer, was eligible for an enhanced sentence pursuant to the habitual offender statute. See id. at 1286. There, the defendant argued that because this Court had defined the statute for battery on a law enforcement officer as an enhancement statute in Merritt, a double enhancement under the habitual felony offender statute violated double jeopardy. See id. We disagreed, explaining that there is a qualitative difference between a statute which reclassifies enumerated offenses committed against law enforcement officers and enhancement statutes such as the habitual offender statute, `which cut across some or all criminal statutes.' Id. at 1287 (quoting State v. Brown, 476 So.2d 660, 662 (Fla.1985)). Clearly, in Mills we held that offenses that are reclassified as felonies pursuant to section 784.07 qualify as felony offenses for purposes of the habitual felony offender statute, and double jeopardy principles are not violated. See id. Again, the Thompson decision was not cited in Mills, nor was an issue regarding a knowledge element of the offense of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer presented or discussed. Neither Merritt nor Mills modified the holding in Thompson, which requires that a jury determine if the defendant had knowledge of his victim's status as a law enforcement officer. The language in Mills declaring section 784.07 to be a reclassification statute is of no separate importance here. Thompson itself held that section 784.07(3) included a knowledge element, and section 784.07(3)'s classification as either a substantive offense or a sentencing enhancement was totally irrelevant to our determination on that issue. See Thompson, 695 So.2d at 693. Irrespective of whether section 784.07(3) is considered to create a substantive offense, an enhancement provision, or a reclassification statute, Thompson still mandates that a jury is required to determine whether the defendant had knowledge of his victim's status as a law enforcement officer.