IN RE: STANDARD JURY INSTRUCTIONS IN CRIMINAL CASES—REPORT 2018-06. (2018)

The Supreme Court Committee on Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases (Committee) has submitted proposed changes to the standard jury instructions and asks that the Court authorize the amended standard instructions for publication and use. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 2(a), Fla. Const.

The Committee proposes amendments to four existing standard criminal jury instructions: 15.1 (Robbery); 15.2 (Carjacking); 15.3 (Home-Invasion Robbery); and 26.9 (Money Laundering). The proposals were published by the Committee in The Florida Bar News; one comment was received from the Florida Public Defender Association (FPDA) concerning the proposed amendments to instructions 15.1, 15.2, and 15.3. The Committee made one of the changes proposed by the FPDA prior to filing its report with the Court, but declined to make the other proposed change. The proposals were not published by the Court after having been filed by the Committee.

Having considered the Committee's report and the FPDA comment, we amend the standard jury instructions as proposed by the Committee, with one technical correction to a comment, and authorize them for publication and use. We discuss the more significant amendments below.

First, nonsubstantive revisions are made to several of the elements in instructions 15.1, 15.2, and 15.3 to improve readability or better track statutory language for the offenses covered by those instructions. Additionally, instructions 15.1, 15.2, and 15.3 are amended to replace “the” before “victim” with “that” or “a” to replace “victim” with the alleged victim's name throughout the instructions to avoid the trial court's accidentally referring to the alleged victim as a “victim.” Statutory citations are also added above various definitions and paragraphs throughout these three instructions. Further, a bracketed sentence is added to the “Force” section of these instructions reading: “The law does not require the force, violence, assault, or putting in fear to be exerted against the victim from whom the property was taken if the force, violence, assault, or putting in fear was exerted against another in the course of the taking.” A citation to Thomas v. State, 36 So.3d 853 (Fla. 3d DCA 2010), is added above that paragraph in each of those three instructions.

Instructions 15.1, 15.2, and 15.3 are also amended to add a definition of “great bodily harm” stating that “ ‘Great bodily harm’ means great as distinguished from slight, trivial, minor, or moderate harm, and as such does not include mere bruises.” A citation to Wheeler v. State, 203 So.3d 1007 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016), is added above that definition in each of those instructions. New paragraphs are added to the comments section of instructions 15.1, 15.2, and 15.3, and an existing paragraph in the comments section of each of those instructions is revised. However, we caution all interested parties that any comments associated with the instructions reflect only the opinion of the Committee and are not necessarily indicative of the views of this Court as to their correctness or applicability.

Next, the crime of resisting a merchant is added as a category-two lesser-included offense for carjacking in instruction 15.2.

With regard to instruction 26.9, several of the elements of the crime money laundering are revised to better track statutory language governing that offense. Additionally, a last element is added reading: “The money or property involved in the financial transaction exceeded $300 in any 12-month period.” This amendment is made to address language found in section 896.101(5), Florida Statutes (2018). Further, a paragraph is added to the instruction providing: “A[n] (name of the specified unlawful activity in § 895.02(8)(a)(1.-50. alleged) consists of (give elements of the specified unlawful activity alleged). (If applicable, also explain attempt, conspiracy, solicitation, coercion, and/or intimidation to commit the specified unlawful activity.)”

Next, the phrase “virtual currency” is added to the definition of “monetary instruments” in instruction 26.9 to track recent statutory amendments, see ch. 2017-155, § 12, at 5, Laws of Fla., and a definition of “virtual currency” based on section 896.101(2)(j), Florida Statutes (2018), is added to the instruction. A lesser-included offense table is added to the instruction and contains second- and third-degree money laundering as category-one lesser-included offenses for first-degree money laundering. Last, a paragraph is added to the instruction directing the jury, if it found the defendant guilty of money laundering, to determine whether the transaction involved more than $300 but less than $20,000, $20,000 or more but less than $100,000, or $100,000 or more during any 12-month period, to determine the felony degree of the offense.

The amended criminal jury instructions, as set forth in the appendix to this opinion, are hereby authorized for publication and use.¹ New language is indicated by underlining, and deleted language is indicated by struck-through type. In authorizing the publication and use of these instructions, we express no opinion on their correctness and remind all interested parties that this authorization forecloses neither requesting additional or alternative instructions nor contesting the legal correctness of the instructions. The instructions as set forth in the appendix shall become effective when this opinion becomes final.

It is so ordered.

APPENDIX

FOOTNOTES

1.   The amendments as reflected in the appendix are to the Criminal Jury Instructions as they appear on the Court's website at www.floridasupremecourt.org/jury_instructions/instructions.shtml. We recognize that there may be minor discrepancies between the instructions as they appear on the website and the published versions of the instructions. Any discrepancies as to instructions authorized for publication and use after October 25, 2007, should be resolved by reference to the published opinion of this Court authorizing the instruction.

PER CURIAM.

CANADY, C.J., and PARIENTE, LEWIS, QUINCE, POLSTON, LABARGA, and LAWSON, JJ., concur.