ISAIAH HOWARD - 2 yo (2008) - Talahassee FL

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court issued its opinion Thursday on what the 1st District Court of Appeal called a matter of “great public importance”: whether a person can be convicted of first-degree felony murder when the underlying felony and the murder were the same act.

The court said yes, they can — at least when the victim is a child.

In 2008, Robert Sturdivant was convicted in Bay County of first-degree felony murder under a law that allows a conviction for first-degree murder if it occurred during the commission of another felony. He was sentenced to life in prison.

During the trial, Sturdivant’s attorney, Walter Smith, argued the murder and the underlying felony, aggravated child abuse, were the same act and the most his client could be convicted of was second-degree murder. The appeals court agreed in 2009, and the state appealed the case to the Supreme Court.

Sturdivant was convicted of hitting his girlfriend’s son, 2-year-old Isaiah Howard, once. Isaiah, who was standing on a table when he was hit, fell and suffered a fatal head injury.

The opinion is a reversal of the court’s position. In 2005, the court reversed a conviction of first-degree felony murder based on the underlying felony murder of aggravated child abuse.

But in Thursday’s opinion, the court said the 2005 ruling was incorrect because it failed to account for the intent of the felony-murder law, which specifically mentions aggravated child abuse as a felony that can lead to a first-degree murder conviction.

The ruling essentially means the killing of a child can result in a first-degree murder conviction in any case, regardless of premeditation, Smith said Thursday.


Read more: http://www.newsherald.com/articles/murder-100645-quashed-ruling.html#ixzz1nIvEAQOJ

Hooray! Florida gets this one correct!

Wow! What a miracle. I agree Tom...good to hear that something good has come out of Florida finally.

What he said.