{"id":706,"date":"2018-10-25T10:12:54","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T14:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearwatersexcrimeslawyer.com\/?p=288"},"modified":"2026-01-31T12:51:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T17:51:36","slug":"florida-appeals-court-holds-defendant-may-be-eligible-for-sentence-reduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-holds-defendant-may-be-eligible-for-sentence-reduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Appeals Court Holds Defendant May Be Eligible for Sentence Reduction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Florida law allows a defendant to have their sentence reduced in certain specific situations. This is called a \u201cdownward departure.\u201d Generally, defendants are eligible for a downward departure in their sentence when there has been a specific extenuating circumstance that makes a downward departure just. Your knowledgeable Clearwater criminal defense attorney can tell you whether you may be eligible for a downward departure based on the circumstances of your case.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Florida Downward Departure Law<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>When someone is convicted of a felony in Florida, they are sentenced using guidelines in the Florida Criminal Punishment Code. Essentially, the code has a scoresheet that it uses to determine the amount of prison time that someone should serve. However, in some cases with extenuating circumstances, the court may want to sentence the defendant to less than the minimum sentence determined by the code. This is called a downward departure. Courts can issue a downward departure provided that two conditions are met.<\/p>\n<p>The first thing that the court must find for a downward departure is that there is evidence of mitigating circumstances that supports a downward departure. The code lays out 14 circumstances that may be considered mitigating for a downward departure. These include: the defendant was a relatively minor accomplice, the departure comes from a plea bargain, the defendant\u2019s capacity was substantially impaired, the defendant requires specialized mental health treatment, or the defendant was going to be sentenced as a youthful offender.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-holds-defendant-may-be-eligible-for-sentence-reduction\/#more-706\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida law allows a defendant to have their sentence reduced in certain specific situations. This is called a \u201cdownward departure.\u201d Generally, defendants are eligible for a downward departure in their sentence when there has been a specific extenuating circumstance that makes a downward departure just. Your knowledgeable Clearwater criminal defense attorney can tell you whether [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sex-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Criminal Appeal: Sentence Reduction on Appeal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jury rules can shape the outcome. A sentencing issue can hinge on eligible sentence reduction. See how this ruling defense. Find out your options today.\" \/>\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\/florida-appeals-court-holds-defendant-may-be-eligible-for-sentence-reduction\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Criminal Appeal: Sentence Reduction on Appeal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Jury rules can shape the outcome. A sentencing issue can hinge on eligible sentence reduction. See how this ruling defense. 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Find out your options today.","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\/florida-appeals-court-holds-defendant-may-be-eligible-for-sentence-reduction\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Criminal Appeal: Sentence Reduction on Appeal","twitter_description":"Jury rules can shape the outcome. A sentencing issue can hinge on eligible sentence reduction. See how this ruling defense. Find out your options today.","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\/florida-appeals-court-holds-defendant-may-be-eligible-for-sentence-reduction\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-holds-defendant-may-be-eligible-for-sentence-reduction\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"headline":"Florida Appeals Court Holds Defendant May Be Eligible for Sentence Reduction","datePublished":"2018-10-25T14:12:54+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T17:51:36+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-holds-defendant-may-be-eligible-for-sentence-reduction\/"},"wordCount":595,"articleSection":["Sex Crimes"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-holds-defendant-may-be-eligible-for-sentence-reduction\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-holds-defendant-may-be-eligible-for-sentence-reduction\/","name":"Criminal Appeal: Sentence Reduction on Appeal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-10-25T14:12:54+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T17:51:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"description":"Jury rules can shape the outcome. 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