Carlos J. Acevedo, Petitioner v. State of Florida, Respondent

Summary

The Court approved the Fourth District’s decision holding that a prior conviction under the 1981 version of section 800.04 was a sufficiently similar former-designation offense to support Acevedo’s dangerous sexual felony offender designation. It concluded that the statute requires similar, not identical, elements and that the 1981 and 2005 offenses shared sufficiently similar elements. Justice Pariente concurred in the result but would have held the designation improper and affirmed only because the error was harmless.