Citations

Full opinion text

PER CURIAM.

On September 9, 1976, the relator, Richard E. Gerstein, State Attorney of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, filed a suggestion for writ of prohibition seeking to prohibit the respondents, judges of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, from exercising jurisdiction of a cause without a jury where the State had not consented to such proceeding.

Florida R.Crim.P. 3.260, Waiver of Jury Trial, provides in toto:

A defendant may in writing waive a jury trial with the consent of the State. [Emphasis added.] 34 Fla.Stat.Ann. 38 (1975).

This rule was recently interpreted by us in Thomas v. State, 328 So.2d 545 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976), and we follow our holding in that decision, to-wit: the state must consent to a waiver of a jury trial sought by a defendant.

We therefore order that the writ of prohibition sought by the relator be issued and made absolute.