Opinion ID: 1833546
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Other Contexts

Text: Indeed, Florida courts have consistently recognized that adjudications of delinquency do not operate as convictions in a variety of contexts. For example, in Merck v. State, 664 So.2d 939, 943 (Fla.1995), the trial court found that a prior adjudication of delinquency supported the prior violent felony death penalty aggravator. See id. at 943. On appeal, we noted that it was improper to use an adjudication of delinquency in this manner, because a juvenile adjudication was not a conviction within the meaning of section 921.141(5)(b), Florida Statutes (1993) and because section 39.053, Florida Statutes (1993), the precursor to the current juvenile delinquency statutes, expressly mandated that adjudications of delinquency were not convictions. Id. at 944. Although Merck involved a criminal statute and the Predator Act is ostensibly a civil penalty that does not involve punishment, the reasoning in Merck is still instructive, particularly given the similarity between the definition of conviction in the Predator Act and the definition in the sentencing statute. [10] Several courts have noted that under Florida's evidence code, adjudications of delinquency, unlike certain types of convictions, cannot be used to impeach witnesses. See § 90.610(1)(b), Fla. Stat. (2001) (stating that adjudications of delinquency are not to be used as convictions for purpose of impeachment); Rivers v. State, 792 So.2d 564, 565 (Fla. 1st DCA 2001); Martin v. State, 710 So.2d 58, 59 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998); Goodman v. State, 567 So.2d 37, 37 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990). Furthermore, Florida courts have held that adjudications of delinquency cannot be used as convictions for the purpose of sentencing a defendant as a habitual offender. See Cotton v. State, 652 So.2d 1260, 1260 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995); Gahley v. State, 605 So.2d 1309, 1310 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992); Shook v. State, 603 So.2d 617, 617 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992); see also City of Jacksonville v. Caverly, 727 So.2d 307, 308 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999) (holding statute that permitted state and local subdivisions to recover per diem charges for incarceration from convicted offenders did not allow for recovery from juveniles in detention based on an adjudication of delinquency); Moody v. Campbell, 713 So.2d 1032, 1033 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998) (holding previous adjudications of delinquency were not convictions for purposes of determining pretrial bail); Wilson v. State, 696 So.2d 528, 529 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997) (holding adjudications of delinquency are not convictions for purposes of determining whether a sentence in excess of sentencing guidelines could be justified by an escalating pattern of offenses).