State of Florida v. Eric Desmond Parrish

Pensacola, Florida, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with sexual battery with force, battery, and false imprisonment.

Reported by Kent Morlan

Parrish raped his 53-year-old foster mother when he was 16.
Under Florida’s Criminal Punishment Code, the permissible
sentencing range for Parrish’s convictions was 146.85 months to life
imprisonment. Typically, “[t]he lowest permissible sentence
provided by calculations from the total sentence points . . . is
assumed to be the lowest appropriate sentence for the offender
being sentenced.” § 921.00265(1), Fla. Stat. (2020). But a
downward departure is permitted where “there are circumstances or
factors that reasonably justify [it].” § 921.0026(1), Fla. Stat. (2020);
see also § 921.00265(1), Fla. Stat. (“A departure sentence is
prohibited unless there are mitigating circumstances or factors
present as provided in s. 921.0026 which reasonably justify a
departure.”).

When faced with a request for a downward departure
sentence, a trial court applies the two-step test we described in
Banks v. State, 732 So. 2d 1065 (Fla. 1999). Step one requires the
court to analyze “whether there is a valid legal ground [for a
departure] and adequate factual support for that ground in the case
pending before it.” Id. at 1067. The court then considers, at step
two, “whether it should depart, i.e., whether departure is indeed the
best sentencing option for the defendant in the pending case.” Id.
at 1068.

Reversed and remanded.