In 2015, the Florida Supreme Court decided State v. Shelley, which held that double jeopardy prohibits separate convictions based on the same solicitation conduct.
Multiple charges for the same course of illegal conduct were considered double Jeopardy. To over-simplify; soliciting a minor and traveling to meet a minor are two separate crimes, but to be convicted of both, you need to prove they are from separate courses of conduct – if not, it’s double jeopardy.
Thereafter, defendants flocked to court to challenge their convictions and to argue against some being overturned, the prosecution went outside the charging documents to establish that the two courses of conduct were separate. For example; defendant solicited on May 1st, but did not travel to meet until May 3rd. Only problem is – in some cases prosecutors had to go outside the charging documents to establish the separate courses of conduct.
In 2018, the Florida Supreme Court decided Lee v. State, which stated, “[T]o determine whether multiple convictions of solicitation of a minor . . . and traveling after solicitation of a minor are based upon the same conduct for purposes of double jeopardy, the reviewing court should consider only the charging document – not the entire evidentiary record.”
Last week, in Baker v. State, the 3rd District Court of Appeals lay down the law, saying:
“To be clear, under Lee, if the State wishes to charge a defendant for separate offenses under sections 847.0135(3) and (4), in order to avoid a double jeopardy violation, the charging document must be clear, on its face, that the conduct constituting solicitation for one offense is separate and distinct from the conduct constituting solicitation under the other offense.”
If you were charged with multiple offenses arising from the same course of conduct and think you might qualify for relief under Shelley, the first thing you should do is look at your charging documents and see whether they establish a separate course of conduct. If they do not, you might want to consult with an attorney to see whether you qualify for any relief.
What if a defendant was charged with Traveling to Meet a Minor, AND Solicitation of a Minor, and beat both charges with an Entrapment order that was backed by the DCA… Then the same prosecutor turns around and takes the SAME charging document (Same date, time, evidence etc etc), and charges this ruled entrapped defendant with Attempted Lewd & Lascivious Battery on the same fake Minor AFTER the same course of conduct has already been ruled ENTRAPMENT? Blockburger shows there is NO difference in each case besides the statute numbers, and both charges fall under statutes “400” and literally have the exact same terminology VERBATIM! If the same course of action at the exact same date/time is already Entrapment, how is this not Double Jeopardy or at the very least ALL entrapment? No lawyer seems to be able to answer… Everyone says it’s “never happened before” and “it’s not supposed to happen.” Meanwhile it’s happening to my friend and his life is on the line! If you think you can answer, PLEASE LET US KNOW!
Stan,
He would need to consult with his attorney for anything more specific than we offered.
It’s not that we’re trying to be evasive – we are just NOT a law firm and NOT attorneys. We are not licensed nor qualified to offer legal advise and if we provide an answer to an individual’s question it can be construed as such (as opposed to writing general commentary on a case to a general audience).
This post was made for EVERYONE. Thank you for allowing it. Seriously, the situation is a mystery… Entrapment, and recharging people for the same EXACT entrapped case? It may take a while, but that doesn’t sound like it should be legal… How can you change it?
To further clarify,
If your charging documents have the SAME date range from say March 16 to March 19 for each charge for soliciting AND traveling, regardless of whether you accepted a plea or not, that is considered Double Jeopardy.
As always, ty FAC for info like this
Oops @ myself,
Also of note, if your charging dates overlap each other is also considered Double Jeopardy.
For example, charge 1 is for March 16 – 19 and charge 2 is for March 19. The dates overlap and convictions for both is a big constitutional no-no.
Fwiw, I’ve talked to a few lawyers who are absolutely clueless when it comes to this. Keep searching!
Also of note to the above note, derp, if you are off of probation and everything regarding your case is finished in the court system you may want to look into a “Certificate of Eligibility”
as this type of situation falls directly into the Double Jeopardy spectrum.
And no, I’m not a lawyer. Good luck!
Thank you very much for that information,as that could be very helpful in my case. Even though I m not in Florida. I was charged with a single case in Kansas so later removed after 10 yrs. from registry but now in Missouri they want to keep me on the registry because there were two people involved saying it is two counts. Also changing it from a misdemeanor to felony. But before I go through that I want to try to get the charges expunged in Kansas . If anyone has any helpful tips , would appreciate it. As I’m having a hard time getting any useful information out of an attorney.
Would this apply if the defendant took a plea deal?
You would need to consult with your attorney for anything more specific than we offered.
It’s not that we’re trying to be evasive – we are just NOT a law firm and NOT attorneys. We are not licensed nor qualified to offer legal advise and if we provide an answer to an individual’s question it can be construed as such (as opposed to writing general commentary on a case to a general audience).
Our post is more of a “heads up – if you’re in this situation you might want to ask your attorney” type thing.
i don’t think it will matter if you accepted a plea deal