Monthly Archives: July 2023
Hate Crime Defendant Gets Probation
A 55-year-old man, who faced decades in prison, pleaded guilty to hate crime-enhanced assault stemming from an incident at a 2019 MLK Jr. Day protest. As a condition of his deferred disposition probation, the man cannot possess firearms for a decade, must perform 300 hours of community service, take anger management classes, and attend… Read More »
Informal Expungement in Hillsborough County
The consequences of a criminal conviction keep coming long after the judge’s gavel falls. On average, a felony conviction costs about $6,400 per year in lost wages and other costs, even years after the defendant’s sentence ends. These high costs quickly add up and become debilitating. Other lifelong costs of a criminal conviction, like… Read More »
Jail Release Options In Hillsborough County
As coronavirus lockdowns ended in late 2020, local jail populations skyrocketed. Unsentenced inmates accounted for over 80 percent of this growth. A key presumption in the law holds that the punishment should fit the crime. In other words, if defendants haven’t committed a crime, or at least they haven’t been convicted of a crime,… Read More »
Search Warrant Requirements in Florida
The search warrant requirement comes from the writs of assistance which the British used in Colonial times. These writs, which were often transferable, were blank search warrants that allowed any military or law enforcement official to search any property at any time. To end this abusive practice, the Founding Fathers added the Fourth Amendment… Read More »
When Can Officers Pull Me Over on Suspicion of DUI?
Usually, police officers can detain motorists or other persons if they have reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. For many years, since the Supreme Court established this rule in 1968, reasonable suspicion was an evidence-based hunch. The Court has watered down this rule in recent years. For example, in 2014, the Supremes ruled that police… Read More »