Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed March 8, 2017.
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
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No. 3D15-2759
Lower Tribunal No. 80-19545A
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Freddy Brown,
Appellant,
vs.
The State of Florida,
Appellee.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Miguel M. de la
O, Judge.
Carlos J. Martinez, Public Defender, and Jonathan Greenberg, Assistant
Public Defender, for appellant.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Nikole Hiciano, Assistant Attorney
General, for appellee.
Before LAGOA, FERNANDEZ and SCALES, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Appellant Freddy Brown pled guilty to second degree murder for a murder
he committed in 1980, when he was seventeen years old. His sentencing hearing
did not take into consideration his status as a juvenile offender. Brown was
sentenced to life imprisonment with parole. He remains imprisoned due to a record
of unsatisfactory institutional conduct.
In 2015, Brown filed a rule 3.850 motion for post-conviction relief pursuant
to Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012), which held that the mandatory
sentencing of a juvenile to a term of life in prison without parole violates the
Eighth Amendment. The Florida Legislature responded to Miller v. Alabama by
enacting sections 921.1401 and 921.1402 of the Florida Statutes, which provide for
the review of sentences of juveniles convicted of certain offenses and given a term
of life imprisonment. See Atwell v. State, 197 So. 3d 1040 (Fla. 2016) (extending
Miller v. Alabama’s proscription to a Florida juvenile’s life sentence with the
possibility of parole).
The trial court denied Brown’s rule 3.850 motion. We reverse Brown’s life
sentence and remand for an appropriate resentencing. Miller v. State, No. 3D15-
2492 (Fla. 3d DCA Jan. 25, 2017).
Reversed and remanded with instructions.
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