Howington v. State

Appellant is entitled to be resentenced without application of the Habitual Felony Offender Act, because he was not notified, prior to his first sentencing, of the prior convictions upon which the State intended to rely.

The State’s attempt to remedy the lack of notice by moving the trial court to set aside the first sentence and to resentence appellant in accord with Rule 6(b)(3)(ii), cannot compensate for the failure to properly invoke the Habitual Felony Offender Act the first time. The Act is not self-executing; it “prescribes certain triggering requisites,” Ex parte Glover, 508 So.2d at…