While perusing the latest version of CS/HB 119 (read for the 1st time 3/9/10), the last couple of sections of the bill popped out at me.
(...)
(1846)Section 15. The Legislature intends that nothing in this
(1847))act reduce or diminish a court's jurisdiction.
(1848)Section 16. If any provision of this act or its
(1849)application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the
(1850)invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of
(1851)this act which can be given effect without the invalid provision
(1852)or application, and to this end the provisions of this act are
(1853)declared severable.
Nothing in this act reduces or diminishes a court jurisdiction.
And if any provision is held invalid, it doesn't effect any other provisions of the act.
Sounds sort of promising, doesn't it? As if the Florida Legislature were granting judges some sort of discretion within the law.
In the case of my family, a judge ruled my loved one was not a sex offender and that sex offender probation need not apply; however, had we known (hell, if the attorney had known) that a solicitation conviction under F.S. 800.04 carried the same weight as if an actual lewd and lascivious act had occurred, I guarantee our attorney would've asked for a continuance to plead down from any charge remotely connected with sex offender laws.
But you know what is said about hindsight....
So, I checked to see if F.S. 943.0436 was a cited statute in the creation of F.S. 856.022, the latest proposed addition to Florida sex offender law. It was not, no big surprise there.
In brief, F.S. 943.0436 legislatively removes the power of a judge to impose a fair and just sentence for first time (or otherwise) offenders, quite effectively stripping citizens from the right of legal due process. Why the law I affectionately refer to as the judicial handcuff has not been championed by the ACLU is beyond me.
I imagine that's what an appeals court is all about. That is, if one has enough money and enough of an ego to endure the humiliation.
What you (and your attorney) don't know about sex offender law can hurt you.
