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Bautista v. State12/4/2003
We have for review Bautista v. State, 832 So. 2d 122 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002), in which the Fourth District Court of Appeal certified the following question as one of great public importance:
DOES THE "A/ANY" TEST ADOPTED IN GRAPPIN V. STATE AND STATE V. WATTS AS THE METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE UNIT OF PROSECUTION FOR THE COMMISSION OF MULTIPLE PROSCRIBED ACTS IN THE COURSE OF A SINGLE EPISODE, PRECLUDE MULTIPLE CONVICTIONS FOR DUI MANSLAUGHTER WHERE MORE THAN ONE DEATH OCCURS IN A SINGLE ACCIDENT AS APPROVED IN MELBOURNE V. STATE?
Bautista, 832 So. 2d at 125. We have rephrased the question to be:
DOES THE "A/ANY" TEST ADOPTED IN GRAPPIN V. STATE AND STATE V. WATTS PRECLUDE MULTIPLE CONVICTIONS OF DUI MANSLAUGHTER WHERE MULTIPLE DEATHS OCCUR IN A SINGLE DUI CRASH?
For the reasons stated below, we answer the certified question in the negative and hold that multiple convictions of DUI manslaughter may arise from multiple deaths in a single DUI crash.
I. BACKGROUND
David Bautista was driving under the influence of alcohol when his vehicle collided with another car, fatally injuring its two occupants. He was convicted on two counts of DUI manslaughter. Bautista appealed, arguing that since the DUI manslaughter statute penalizes the killing of "any human being" rather than "a human being," the statute does not authorize multiple convictions based on two deaths arising from a single DUI incident. Relying on Melbourne v. State, 679 So. 2d 759 (Fla. 1996), where this Court held that multiple convictions arising from a single DUI incident did not violate double jeopardy principles, the Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed the convictions. The district court concluded that Bautista's claim, although not based on the principle of double jeopardy, was nonetheless foreclosed by this Court's language in Melbourne.
II. DISCUSSION
The DUI manslaughter statute, section 316.193(3)(c)(3), Florida Statutes (2002), provides:
Any person:
(a) Who is in violation of subsection (1) [driving under the influence];
(b) Who operates a vehicle; and
(c) Who, by reason of such operation, causes or contributes to causing:. . . .
3. The death of any human being commits DUI manslaughter . . .
Id. (emphasis added).
Relying on the "a/any" test developed in Grappin v. State, 450 So. 2d 480 (Fla. 1984), and State v. Watts, 462 So. 2d 813 (Fla. 1985), Bautista argues that because the adjective "any" modifies "human being" in the statute, the killing of multiple persons in a single DUI incident constitutes a single offense of DUI manslaughter.
A. The "A/Any" Test
To properly resolve the certified question, we must first trace the history and purpose behind the "a/any" test. In Grappin, we were confronted with a decision of the Second District Court of Appeal that was in direct conflict with decisions from two other district courts of appeal. The issue presented was the Legislature's intended unit of prosecution for the theft of a firearm under subsection (2)(b)(3) of Florida's general theft statute. § 812.014, Fla. Stat. (1979). Employing what it called "a common sense reading of the plain language of section 812.014(2)(b)," the Second District determined that such a reading demonstrates "that the legislature unmistakably intended for the simultaneous unlawful taking of more than one firearm to be subject to a separate prosecution." State v. Grappin, 427 So. 2d 760, 763 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983) (emphasis added), approved, 450 So. 2d 480 (Fla. 1984).
Section 812.014(2)(b), Florida Statutes (1979), read as fo
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