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3rd DCA ROUNDUP SUPER BOWL EDITION

By "Captain Liberty" and "Rumpole"

It's that time of the week (after Wednesday) and with the Super Bowl looming, what better time to discuss and dissect the Third District's kerfuffles? In our only case this week Judge Nushin Sayfie catches a reversal in a downward departure case.In State v. Ford the Defendant pled to grand theft of a vehicle. Based on his prior record, his guidelines were 21. 055 months (what's .055 months btw?). However, because in the words of the Judge "the defendant has a job" she granted a motion for downward departure based on the victim's need for restitution and sentenced the defendant to 2 years probation. But the state's prison lust was not satiated in this case and they appealed. Held: A downward departure under Section 921.0026(2)(e) (Victim's need for restitution) must be based on the court's specific findings that the victim's need for restitution outweighs the need for imprisonment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Justice Building Blog on February 05, 2010 (boomark / email).