Dean v. State

DEKLE, Justice.

Forcible rape was the charge against defendant under Fla.Stat. § 794.01, F.S.A. which provided at the time of his conviction in 1970, that upon recommendation of mercy by the jury (as here), the punishment was imprisonment “for life, or for any term of years within the discretion of the judge.”1 He received a sentence of life imprisonment but was thereafter committed as a mentally disordered sex offender under Fla.Stat. § 917.12 (1969) whereupon his life sentence was suspended. The cause reaches us by transfer from the Fourth District Court of Appeal by reason of challenges to…