{"id":536,"date":"2019-01-02T12:18:08","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T17:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearwatercriminallawyer.net\/?p=536"},"modified":"2026-01-31T13:11:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T18:11:46","slug":"federal-court-clarifies-what-prior-convictions-count-toward-career-offender-status-under-florida-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/federal-court-clarifies-what-prior-convictions-count-toward-career-offender-status-under-florida-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Court Clarifies What Prior Convictions Count Toward Career Offender Status Under Florida Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the Florida criminal court system, a career offender designation can result in increased jail time. There are specific criteria that must be met before a defendant can be designated a career offender, and an improper designation can result in unjust penalties.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, a federal court issued an <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/appellate-courts\/ca11\/18-11104\/18-11104-2018-11-09.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">opinion<\/a>\u00a0clarifying what convictions count toward a defendant\u2019s career offender status under the Florida sentencing guidelines. If you are a resident of Clearwater with a prior criminal history and are currently charged with a crime, you should meet with a seasoned Clearwater criminal defense attorney to develop a plan that will provide you with a strong chance of a good outcome under the circumstances surrounding your charges.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Defendant\u2019s Prior Convictions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The defendant had previously been convicted of two counts of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and one count of robbery. He was subsequently convicted of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The court designated the defendant as a career offender under Florida\u2019s sentencing guidelines and sentenced him to 120 months in prison. The defendant then appealed his sentence, arguing that he was improperly designated a career offender. On appeal, the court affirmed his sentence.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/federal-court-clarifies-what-prior-convictions-count-toward-career-offender-status-under-florida-law\/#more-536\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Florida criminal court system, a career offender designation can result in increased jail time. There are specific criteria that must be met before a defendant can be designated a career offender, and an improper designation can result in unjust penalties. Recently, a federal court issued an opinion\u00a0clarifying what convictions count toward a defendant\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-defense","category-drug-crime"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Criminal Appeal: Career Offender Rules Federal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Charged with criminal charges? See how this ruling on federal what prior convictions may help or hurt your defense in Pinellas County. See what to do next?\" \/>\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.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/federal-court-clarifies-what-prior-convictions-count-toward-career-offender-status-under-florida-law\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Criminal Appeal: Career Offender Rules Federal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Charged with criminal charges? See how this ruling on federal what prior convictions may help or hurt your defense in Pinellas County. See what to do next?\" \/>\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":"Criminal Appeal: Career Offender Rules Federal","description":"Charged with criminal charges? See how this ruling on federal what prior convictions may help or hurt your defense in Pinellas County. See what to do next?","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.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/federal-court-clarifies-what-prior-convictions-count-toward-career-offender-status-under-florida-law\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Criminal Appeal: Career Offender Rules Federal","twitter_description":"Charged with criminal charges? See how this ruling on federal what prior convictions may help or hurt your defense in Pinellas County. See what to do next?","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/federal-court-clarifies-what-prior-convictions-count-toward-career-offender-status-under-florida-law\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/federal-court-clarifies-what-prior-convictions-count-toward-career-offender-status-under-florida-law\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"headline":"Federal Court Clarifies What Prior Convictions Count Toward Career Offender Status Under Florida Law","datePublished":"2019-01-02T17:18:08+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T18:11:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/federal-court-clarifies-what-prior-convictions-count-toward-career-offender-status-under-florida-law\/"},"wordCount":594,"articleSection":["Criminal Defense","Drug Crime"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/federal-court-clarifies-what-prior-convictions-count-toward-career-offender-status-under-florida-law\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/federal-court-clarifies-what-prior-convictions-count-toward-career-offender-status-under-florida-law\/","name":"Criminal Appeal: Career Offender Rules Federal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-01-02T17:18:08+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T18:11:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"description":"Charged with criminal charges? 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