Melvin Bernard Thompson v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections
DueProcess HabeasCorpus
Can a Florida Law permit a judicial discretion-upward-departure sentence beyond sentencing-guidelines without violating Sixth-Amendment Fourteenth-Amendment
QUESTION(S) PRESENTED 1. Can a Florida Law permit a trial court to exercise judicial discretion to make . new findings of fact of an escalating pattern of criminal conduct by the preponderance of the evidence standard of proof to impose an upward departure sentence beyond the sentencing guideline permitted range without violating a criminal defendant’s Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment Constitutional Rights. 2. Has this Court’s Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence announced in its Apprendi v. New Jersey line of cases over the last two decades, effectively eroded the underpinnings of Almendarez-Torres, 118 S. Ct. 1219 (1998), Stare Decisis vitality, and viability, rendering the fact of a prior conviction an element of , the offense that must be found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt standard of proof? 3. Did the United States District Court of Florida and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals improperly apply the Ritcher presumption to Mr. Thompson’s Habeas Claims of constitutional violations; when those courts failed to look through the appellate decision to the last reasoned opinion to the state post conviction court, to make a determination de novo whether Mr. Thompson constitutional claims were properly adjudicated on the merits.