Federal law deems certain offenses as crimes of violence. If a defendant is convicted of using a firearm during a crime of violence, they may face significantly greater penalties than they would otherwise receive. If the elements of an offense do not expressly require the use of force or bodily…
Kidnapping is one of the most serious crimes a person can be accused of committing, and a conviction for kidnapping often results in a lengthy jail sentence. Not all confinements during the commission of a criminal offense constitute grounds for a kidnapping conviction, though. Rather, as explained in a recent…
In many criminal matters, the State must rely on circumstantial evidence to obtain a conviction, such as eyewitness testimony. Similarly, criminal defendants often ask witnesses to testify to substantiate their defenses. Thus, the inability to present a witness can be greatly prejudicial to a defendant and may result in an…
When a person is charged with a crime in Florida, the State is generally precluded from introducing collateral evidence of other crimes. In other words, the State cannot produce evidence of uncharged crimes that the defendant allegedly committed as evidence of the defendant’s guilt. There are certain situations in which…
If you are charged with a violent crime there are a variety of defenses you can set forth to try to avoid a conviction, including self-defense and mistake. A Florida appellate court recently held, however, that evidence of medical malpractice is not a valid defense to a second-degree murder charge,…