Florida Supreme Court issues amendments to Criminal Rules

On Wednesday, the Florida Supreme Court adopted amendments to certain Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure proposed by The Florida Bar in light of 2023 legislative changes.

On Wednesday, the Florida Supreme Court issued a decision adopting amendments to certain Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure in light of 2023 legislative changes. The amendments were proposed to the Court by The Florida Bar.

The bulk of the changes were made to the rules related to competency determinations for trial (Rules 3.211 and 3.212). The Court summarized the changes to those rules as follows:

First, subdivisions (b) and (c) of rule 3.211 are amended with language from the statutory changes to section 916.12(4)(b) and (c), Florida Statutes. See ch. 2023-270, § 3, Laws of Fla. These provisions require that a clinical assessment must be made to ensure the safety of the patient and the community, list specific possible treatment alternatives, and require the expert’s written findings to include a full and detailed explanation regarding why alternative treatment options are insufficient.

Next, new subdivision (c)(3)(E) is added to rule 3.212 to require the court to find other services to be inappropriate before committing a defendant for treatment. Additionally, new subdivision (c)(5) is added requiring the expert’s report to ensure alternative treatment options are fully considered and found insufficient before issuing a commitment order. After adding new subdivision (c)(5), the subsequent subdivisions are renumbered accordingly. In renumbered subdivisions (c)(6) and (c)(6)(A), the timeline for facility administrators to file their report is changed from 6 months to 60 days. These amendments are consistent with the recent updates to section 916.13, Florida Statutes. See ch. 2023-270, § 4, Laws of Fla.

The Court’s opinion also notes that “the Committee [which originally prepared the proposed amendments] declined to propose amendments to rule 3.780” regarding sentencing hearings in capital cases. The Court made one change to that Rule, “amend[ing] rule 3.780(a) to generally state ‘[i]n capital sentencing proceedings’ rather than citing section 921.141”:

The reason for this change is unclear. It could be a result of the new capital sex crime legislation. After that legislation went into effect on October 1, 2023, section 921.141 is not the only section that addresses capital sentencing in Florida Statutes.

Further, the Court’s opinion states that, “[b]ecause the amendments were not published for comment prior to their adoption, interested persons shall have seventy-five days from the date of this opinion in which to file comments with the Court.”

The decision was unanimous.

The full decision can be downloaded here.

The Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure can be downloaded here.