{"id":203,"date":"2018-01-03T15:35:23","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T20:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=203"},"modified":"2026-01-09T08:02:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T13:02:50","slug":"mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandatory Minimum Sentences in Florida Criminal Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Florida law is often strict when it comes to doling out punishments for crimes, even when the person charged is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justia.com\/criminal\/offenses\/other-crimes\/juvenile-crimes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">juvenile<\/a>. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has established some limits on harsh sentencing for people under the age of 18, states still have a lot of leeway to put juveniles behind bars for long stretches of time. Florida\u2019s Fifth District Court of Appeal recently explained that judges have the power to impose mandatory minimum sentences on juvenile offenders.Mr. Young was 17 years old when he was charged with armed robbery, a Florida gun crime that\u2019s punishable by up to life in prison. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years behind bars, the mandatory minimum punishment under state law. Young later appealed the sentence, arguing that it violated the U.S. Constitution. Young\u2019s attorneys told the court that the Eighth Amendment\u2019s ban on cruel and unusual punishment bars the state from imposing mandatory minimum sentences. That\u2019s because those sentences don\u2019t allow judges to consider individual circumstances or to take into account that juveniles may have more capacity for reform, they said.<\/p>\n<p>The Fifth District disagreed. \u201cThe court clearly allowed for the consideration of Young&#8217;s age in fashioning its sentence, as evidenced by Young receiving the lowest permissible sentence for his crime,\u201d the court said. \u201cAlthough we acknowledge that the 10-year mandatory minimum sentence required here does limit, to some extent, the discretion of a trial court in sentencing a juvenile offender, we do not view this modest limitation as a constitutional infirmity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases\/#more-203\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida law is often strict when it comes to doling out punishments for crimes, even when the person charged is a juvenile. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has established some limits on harsh sentencing for people under the age of 18, states still have a lot of leeway to put juveniles behind bars for long [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,29,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-juvenile","category-violent-crime","category-weapons"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mandatory Minimum Sentences in Florida<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Facing a mandatory minimum in Florida? 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Learn how these laws lock in prison time and why challenging them can be so important.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Mandatory Minimum Sentences in Florida","twitter_description":"Facing a mandatory minimum in Florida? Learn how these laws lock in prison time and why challenging them can be so important.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/mandatory-minimum-florida-criminal-sentencing-handcuffed.webp","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"Mandatory Minimum Sentences in Florida Criminal Cases","datePublished":"2018-01-03T20:35:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-09T13:02:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases\/"},"wordCount":533,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/mandatory-minimum-florida-criminal-sentencing-handcuffed.webp","articleSection":["Juvenile","Violent Crime","Weapons"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases\/","name":"Mandatory Minimum Sentences in Florida","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-florida-criminal-cases\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/mandatory-minimum-florida-criminal-sentencing-handcuffed.webp","datePublished":"2018-01-03T20:35:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-09T13:02:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"description":"Facing a mandatory minimum in Florida? 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