{"id":903,"date":"2023-10-29T21:01:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T01:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=903"},"modified":"2026-01-08T10:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T15:34:58","slug":"florida-court-explains-grounds-for-altering-convictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-explains-grounds-for-altering-convictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Court Explains Grounds for Altering Convictions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is axiomatic that under state and federal law, a person cannot be charged with or convicted for the same crime more than once, as doing so would violate their protections against double jeopardy. Merely because a person is convicted of violating a specific statute more than once does not necessarily mean that their rights have been violated, however, as illustrated in a <a href=\"https:\/\/media.ca11.uscourts.gov\/opinions\/unpub\/files\/202213938.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent<\/a> Florida ruling issued in a drug crime case in which the court affirmed the defendant\u2019s conviction. If you are faced with accusations that you committed a drug-related crime, it is wise to contact a Tampa drug crime defense lawyer regarding what steps you can take to protect your rights.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>History of the Case<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is reported that the defendant was convicted in 2016 of four counts related to the possession and distribution of heroin. His PSI categorized him as a career offender based on multiple previous felony convictions for controlled substance crimes, including two convictions for the sale of cocaine in violation of Florida law and one conviction for conspiracy to possess cocaine and cocaine base with intent to distribute in violation of federal law. The defendant objected to these calculations during sentencing, arguing that he was being charged for the same cocaine convictions multiple times, raising a double jeopardy claim.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is alleged that in the district court affirmed the PSI&#8217;s calculations, and his sentence was upheld on direct appeal. In 2022 the defendant filed a Rule 36 motion, contending that his prior state and federal cocaine convictions should be scored as a single offense for the purposes of calculating his criminal history in relation to his 2016 heroin conviction. The trial court denied his motion, which led to the current appeal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-explains-grounds-for-altering-convictions\/#more-903\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is axiomatic that under state and federal law, a person cannot be charged with or convicted for the same crime more than once, as doing so would violate their protections against double jeopardy. Merely because a person is convicted of violating a specific statute more than once does not necessarily mean that their rights [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drug-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Florida Court Changes Criminal Convictions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Get clear on how Florida courts can change or reduce convictions and what this means if you seek a lighter sentence or new chance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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