Dautel v. State

The majority opinion recognizes that “a good argument may be made that the trial court should only look at the elements of the out-of-state crime because that is all that has been established as the result of an entry of a plea or which has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt as evidenced by a guilty verdict.” I find at least the premise of this argument persuasive.

The inquiry for the sentencing court should be whether the facts established by the conviction in the foreign jurisdiction would have supported conviction for an offense under Florida law that, if not precisely parallel, is at…