General Conditions of Probation Need Not Be Orally Pronounced at the Sentencing Hearing As Long As They Are Included In Written Sentencing Order

In Hyden v. State, 715 So. 2d 960 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998), the Fourth District concluded that it would not correct an unpreserved error arising when the trial court failed to orally announce conditions of probation at the sentencing hearing that were subsequently imposed in the written sentencing order. 715 So. 2d at 961. This is in accord with the conclusion of the Second District that the deviations from the oral pronouncement of conditions of probation should not be corrected on appeal. See Denson, 711 So. 2d at 1230 n.13 (correcting error in the written sentence's failure to conform to the oral pronouncement resulting in extra years of incarceration, but stating that errors in imposing conditions of probation do not constitute serious, patent sentencing errors); Mason v. State, 698 So. 2d 914, 915 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997) (finding an appeal of an unpreserved error in the failure of the written order imposing conditions of probation to conform to the oral pronouncement is "just the type of appeal that should be eliminated" by the Act). Prior to the Act, we differentiated between "general conditions of probation" and "special conditions of probation." See Williams, 712 So. 2d at 764; Justice, 674 So. 2d at 125. The court found that defendants are given constructive notice of the imposition of general conditions of probation that are mandated or authorized by statute. See State v. Hart, 668 So. 2d 589, 592 (Fla. 1996); see also Brock v. State, 688 So. 2d 909, 910 n.1 (Fla. 1997). Likewise, defendants are given constructive notice of the general conditions of probation published in conditions (1)-(11) of the standard probation form found in Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure Rule 3.986(e). See Hart, 668 So. 2d at 592. Thus, general conditions of probation do not have to be orally pronounced at the sentencing hearing and due process is satisfied as long as the conditions are included in the written sentencing order. See id. at 592-93.