State v. Lewars

The Supreme Court approved the decision of the Second District Court of Appeal in this case and held that release from a county jail after a defendant serves a sentence entirely in the county jail where the sentence would have required transfer to a Florida prison but for the accumulation of jail credit does not satisfy the language of Fla. Stat. 775.082(9)(a)1, which provides the definition of “prison releasee reoffender” (PRR).The portion of the statute at issue requires the defendant, within the three years preceding his commission of qualifying offense, to have been “released from a state correctional facility operated by the Department of Corrections or a private vendor.” The Second District concluded that the language of the statute is not satisfied when a defendant is released from a county jail under the circumstances of this case. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the language at issue does not include release from a county jail; and (2) therefore, commission of a PRR-qualifying offense within three years of release from jail, rather than prison, does not satisfy the requirements of section 775.082(9)(a)1. View "State v. Lewars" on Justia Law