Florida Criminal Lawyer Blog

Every state has developed a mechanism to try juvenile offenders on adult charges. According to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, 3.7% of juvenile offenders in the state were transferred to adult criminal court. While that sounds like a small percentage, it has risen substantially in the past couple of years. Florida criminal defense attorneys have noticed a steady rise in the number of juveniles arrested and then certified as adults. Last year, 3,408 different juveniles faced adult charges in the state of Florida.

Trying teens as adults used to be uncommon, but after a spike in violent youth crime in the late 1980s and early 1990s, states scrambled to find ways to implement harsher sentencing for the youngest offenders. The mantra “adult time for adult crimes” resonated, especially as more school shootings occurred. Arkansans were horrified when an 11-year-old and 13-year-old stormed their Jonesboro middle school with guns in 1998, killing five – especially when it became apparent that the state could not hold them beyond age 21. This concern was not unwarranted. Shortly after he was released, the public learned that the Mitchell Johnson, the older boy, was sharing an apartment with another notorious Arkansas juvenile murderer. The school shooters can even legally buy guns if they so choose. Arkansas now has a law which allows for combined juvenile and adult sentencing for very serious crimes committed by young people.

When a juvenile is arrested for a crime, it triggers delinquency proceedings. Delinquency is the juvenile equivalent of criminal. The prosecutor may decide to file adult charges instead of juvenile. The prosecutor will weigh the severity of the crime and the child’s age when making that decision. The juvenile will receive a waiver hearing, where a judge will determine if it is in fact appropriate for the juvenile to face adult charges. The juvenile’s criminal defense attorney will typically argue to keep the case in juvenile court. If the juvenile is tried and convicted in adult criminal court, the judge will take into account the youth of the offender when determining sentencing.

Continue reading "Juvenile Justice in Florida" »

Posted by William Ryan Moore | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Criminal Punishment , Judicial Trends

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This week New Jersey ended the death penalty as a form of criminal punishment. Such action was expected by the Governor and many states in the Nation are revisiting their stance on capital punishment. Other states, but not Florida. The states that are examining their death penalty statutes are ones that have very few people on death row and don’t seem to enforce the statute. In fact, New Jersey hadn’t executed anyone since 1963 and only had a handful of people awaiting execution when Governor John Corzine did away with executions.

In most cases the cost of imposing death outweighs the cost of life in prison for a defendant found guilty. States, when determining their stance on capital punishment, also evaluate the odds of executing a person who is, in fact, innocent.

Florida’s death penalty was reinstated in 1976 and has executed 64 people since that time. There are currently 389 people on death row in the state who are expected to spend 14 years on death row before being executed. In 2007 there were no inmates put to death due to the botched execution of defendant and convicted murderer Angel Diaz. Since that time, changes have been made to Florida’s lethal injection procedure and the Supreme Court is reviewing the constitutionality of such injections.

Posted by William Ryan Moore | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Criminal Punishment

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