{"id":297,"date":"2018-05-11T15:08:51","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T19:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=297"},"modified":"2026-01-07T08:41:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:41:35","slug":"can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Florida Prosecutors Use Your Criminal History Against You in Court?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A criminal record can make life complicated, including by making it tough to find or keep a job. Past criminal convictions can in some cases also come back to haunt you if you\u2019re ever charged with a new crime. Although there are important limits on the use of prior criminal acts \u2013 old crimes can\u2019t generally be used to prove that you committed new crimes \u2013 there are also some exceptions. That includes when a criminal defendant testifies on his own behalf at trial. Florida\u2019s Fifth District Court of Appeal <a href=\"http:\/\/www.5dca.org\/Opinions\/Opin2018\/052118\/5D17-177.op.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recently explained<\/a> how criminal records can be used to try to impeach the testimony of a defendant in a Florida criminal case.A defendant was charged with aggravated assault on a pregnant person. When he took the witness stand in his own defense at trial, prosecutors attempted to discredit him by introducing evidence of three previous convictions for burglary of a dwelling, grand theft, and petit theft. The prosecutor asked him if he had been previously convicted of a felony, and he answered that he had been convicted twice. He also responded to a separate question that he had two convictions for crimes involving dishonesty.<\/p>\n<p>The court said the defendant&#8217;s answers were accurate. The burglary and grand theft convictions were for felony offenses. The grand theft and petit theft convictions were for crimes involving dishonesty. But after the defendant was convicted on the aggravated assault charge, he appealed the decision. He said the prosecutors asked the questions in a way that wrongly made it seem to the jury like he was lying about his previous convictions. The Fifth District disagreed.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/#more-297\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A criminal record can make life complicated, including by making it tough to find or keep a job. Past criminal convictions can in some cases also come back to haunt you if you\u2019re ever charged with a new crime. Although there are important limits on the use of prior criminal acts \u2013 old crimes can\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aggravated-assault"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can Florida Use Your Past Record in Court?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have a past record in Florida? Find out when prosecutors can use it in court and when it should stay out.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Can Florida Use Your Past Record in Court?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Have a past record in Florida? Find out when prosecutors can use it in court and when it should stay out.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/florida-prosecutors-use-criminal-history-against-you-gavel.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can Florida Use Your Past Record in Court?","description":"Have a past record in Florida? Find out when prosecutors can use it in court and when it should stay out.","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\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Can Florida Use Your Past Record in Court?","twitter_description":"Have a past record in Florida? Find out when prosecutors can use it in court and when it should stay out.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/florida-prosecutors-use-criminal-history-against-you-gavel.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\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"Can Florida Prosecutors Use Your Criminal History Against You in Court?","datePublished":"2018-05-11T19:08:51+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-07T13:41:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/"},"wordCount":517,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/florida-prosecutors-use-criminal-history-against-you-gavel.webp","articleSection":["Aggravated Assault"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/","name":"Can Florida Use Your Past Record in Court?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/can-florida-prosecutors-use-your-criminal-history-against-you-in-court\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/florida-prosecutors-use-criminal-history-against-you-gavel.webp","datePublished":"2018-05-11T19:08:51+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-07T13:41:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"description":"Have a past record in Florida? 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