Florida Supreme Court makes it risky for a defendant to tell a judge ‘I’m innocent’
The Florida Supreme Court is sending this message to criminal defendants: If you think you were wrongly convicted, keep it to yourself.
Ignoring long-standing law, the justices decided that when defendants dare to dispute their guilt instead of owning the crime, state trial judges may pile on extra prison time.
With that, the justices normalized a penalty for defendants who proclaim their innocence. They’re entitled to address the court before sentencing, a procedure called allocution. From now on, any sentence a judge increases to retaliate for a defendant’s defiant attitude is likely to hold up on appeal. “I don’t think there will be a whole lot of allocutions anymore,” said Miami attorney Jude Faccidomo, president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “This is just an incremental step toward giving the trial judge carte blanche on sentencing.”
“This opinion makes it very clear that unless defendants throw themselves on the mercy of the court at sentencing, they’re better off keeping their mouths shut,” said Faccidomo, a criminal defense lawyer for 17 years. “We always say, ‘Don’t talk yourself into a higher sentence.’ ”
Justice Ricky Polston, who usually votes with the court’s conservatives, was one of two dissenters. This time he joined Justice Jorge Labarga, the only moderate. “Punishing someone unless they confess guilt of a crime is a violation of due process and the right against self-incrimination,” he wrote. Polston and Labarga concluded that the trial judge trampled Davis’s rights. For context, Labarga brought up Florida’s 30 Death Row exonerations, “the most of any state in our nation.”
Yeah I tried to file a motion to get my case overturned based on my involuntary plea thanks to my do-nothing public defender and I was told “all that will do is give them the opportunity to throw out your conviction and resentence you for more time for daring to stand up for yourself.”
IMHO this has been happening in courts and probation for a long time. Now it’s legal. If you say you didn’t do something you are somehow punished . As we all know, sometimes the denial is the truth. Which amounts to not being able to defend yourself.
This is just another example of why it is difficult to prove your innocence in court and why we end up with so many false convictions.
I repeat: Our system of justice is broken beyond all repair. Police lie, Lawyers lie, Judges lie. And they all get away with it.
The police threaten you and tell you that if you make an innocence plea you will go to prison for the rest of your life.
What choice do we have when You are guilty without a chance to prove your innocence.
With the threats from the justice system what choice is there but to take a plea even though you are innocent.
As I have said previously, it is not a justice system, but a legal system which is seriously broken and in dire need of reform across its entire spectrum because influence can be bought and behind closed doors deals are made.
What happens if someone is found innocent after being railroaded by Florida? Will these Jurists say, well Tally keep it to yourself. No accountability in Florida’s courts and that’s a huge problem. Nothing the state does surprises me anymore. Just glad I got out of there two years ago. Florida is the desensitized state and an embarrassment. Instead of Let’s go Brandon, how about let’s go Floridumb and get with the program!!
I can’t help but wonder if the gentleman who spent 16 years in prison and 22 years on the registry would have been better off if he had kept his mouth shut and just took what was coming to him unjustifiably. I find it hard to believe that the nation I served for 29 years has gone down such a ‘road’ as it has.