Opinion ID: 1779345
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Could-Have-Been-Imposed Test

Text: In Hummel, the conflict case, the First District renounced the would-have-been-imposed test. 782 So.2d at 451. The court instead embraced the new harmless error analysis to be applied in dealing with scoresheet inaccuracies, which the district court believed we adopted in Heggs v. State, 759 So.2d 620 (Fla.2000). Hummel, 782 So.2d at 451. As we explain below, however, Heggs did not supplant the would-have-been-imposed test for claims alleging scoresheet error. In Heggs, we held that chapter 95-184, Laws of Florida, which adopted the 1995 sentencing guidelines, violated the Florida Constitution's single subject requirement. 759 So.2d at 621. We then discussed the remedy for sentences imposed under the now-invalidated guidelines: We realize that our decision here will require, among other things, the resentencing of a number of persons who were sentenced under the 1995 guidelines, as amended by chapter 95-184. However, only those persons adversely affected by the amendments made by chapter 95-184 may rely on our decision here to obtain relief. Stated another way, in the sentencing guidelines context, we determine that if a person's sentence imposed under the 1995 guidelines could have been imposed under the 1994 guidelines (without a departure), then that person shall not be entitled to relief under our decision here. Heggs, 759 So.2d at 627 (emphasis added). We did not consider in Heggs the concern that drives the would-have-been-imposed testthe effect of changes in the sentencing range on the judge's discretion when sentencing a defendant under the guidelines. Rather, we were concerned about the effect on sentences imposed under the 1995 guidelines of our holding those guidelines unconstitutional. Accordingly, we determined that if the sentence unconstitutionally imposed could legally have been imposed under the still-valid 1994 guidelines (without a departure) no resentencing was required. [5] Therefore, the could-have-been-imposed test adopted in Hummel rests on a faulty premise: that Heggs imposed a new standard for determining whether scoresheet error was harmless. Heggs simply did not concern the situation presented here, and its remedy for sentences imposed under the unconstitutional 1995 guidelines does not apply to situations that do not involve those guidelines. [6]