{"id":707,"date":"2021-01-27T20:05:11","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T01:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=707"},"modified":"2026-01-08T04:24:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:24:58","slug":"florida-court-declines-to-modify-sentence-due-to-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-declines-to-modify-sentence-due-to-covid-19-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Court Declines to Modify Sentence Due to COVID-19 Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The coronavirus spread rapidly through many prisons, causing extreme illness, death, and fear of lasting health concerns. Thus, many inmates with concerning health issues have sought modifications of their sentences under the CARES Act and other federal statutes, but such requests are not readily granted. Recently, a Florida court issued an opinion explaining the grounds for reducing or changing a sentence in light of the pandemic in a case in which the petitioner was imprisoned for multiple theft crimes. If you are accused of stealing property or any other crime, it is advisable to confer with a skilled Tampa theft defense attorney to discuss your options.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Defendant\u2019s Petition<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It is reported that the defendant was convicted of possessing unauthorized access devices and aggravated theft in violation of federal law and sentenced to thirty months imprisonment followed by three years of probation. He was housed at a federal prison. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the defendant petitioned the court for a modification of his sentence. Specifically, he requested a release to home confinement under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/116\/bills\/hr748\/BILLS-116hr748enr.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CARES Act<\/a> or a compassionate release under federal law. Upon review, the court denied his petition.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Reductions and Modifications of Sentences<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Typically, a court cannot change a term of imprisonment after it has been imposed. In other words, district courts have no inherent authority to alter a prison sentence and can only do so when permitted by statute or rule. The defendant first requested a modification of his sentence to home release pursuant to the CARES Act. The court noted, however, it lacked the authority to grant this relief.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-declines-to-modify-sentence-due-to-covid-19-pandemic\/#more-707\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The coronavirus spread rapidly through many prisons, causing extreme illness, death, and fear of lasting health concerns. Thus, many inmates with concerning health issues have sought modifications of their sentences under the CARES Act and other federal statutes, but such requests are not readily granted. Recently, a Florida court issued an opinion explaining the grounds [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sentencing","category-theft"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>No Sentence Change for COVID in Florida<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Understand why a Florida court refused a sentence change due to COVID-19 and what this shows about health-based relief requests.\" \/>\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\/florida-court-declines-to-modify-sentence-due-to-covid-19-pandemic\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"No Sentence Change for COVID in Florida\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Understand why a Florida court refused a sentence change due to COVID-19 and what this shows about health-based relief requests.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/covid-sentencing-gavel-mask.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":"No Sentence Change for COVID in Florida","description":"Understand why a Florida court refused a sentence change due to COVID-19 and what this shows about health-based relief requests.","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\/florida-court-declines-to-modify-sentence-due-to-covid-19-pandemic\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"No Sentence Change for COVID in Florida","twitter_description":"Understand why a Florida court refused a sentence change due to COVID-19 and what this shows about health-based relief requests.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/covid-sentencing-gavel-mask.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\/florida-court-declines-to-modify-sentence-due-to-covid-19-pandemic\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-declines-to-modify-sentence-due-to-covid-19-pandemic\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"Florida Court Declines to Modify Sentence Due to COVID-19 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