Gridine v. State
Annotate this CaseWhen Defendant was fourteen years old he pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder, attempted armed robbery, and aggravated battery. The trial court adjudicated Defendant guilty as charged and imposed prison terms of seventy years for the attempted murder conviction and twenty-five years for the attempted armed robbery conviction. Defendant appealed and filed a motion pursuant to Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.800(b)(2), arguing that, under the rationale of Graham v. Florida, his seventy-year prison sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The trial court denied the requested relief. The First District Court of Appeal affirmed, holding that Graham did not apply in Defendant’s case because he did not face a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The Supreme Court quashed the First District’s decision to the extent it affirmed the seventy-year prison sentence and remanded to Defendant’s sentencing court, holding that Defendant’s seventy-year prison sentence did not provide a meaningful opportunity for future release, and therefore, the sentence was unconstitutional in light of Graham.
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