SB 760 — New Crime for Violating Pretrial-Release Conditions
This doesn’t necessarily impact people already on the registry, but today the Florida Legislature filed SB 760 — the “Victim Safety in Pretrial Release Act.” On its face the bill is described as strengthening protections for victims. But under the hood, it creates a brand-new criminal offense for what were previously “conditions of pretrial release” — such as no-contact orders, distance restrictions, curfews, and similar restrictions courts commonly impose as pretrial release conditions. Under current law, these conditions are not separate crimes; they’re part of the pretrial supervision process.
If SB 760 becomes law, then a person charged with one of the listed “specified violent offenses” — including certain sex offenses — who merely violates a pretrial-release condition could be charged with a new, standalone crime. What previously might have led only to revocation of bond or detention now carries the risk of additional criminal charges.
This effectively means that pretrial-release “conditions” — non-criminal obligations until now — would become potential felonies or misdemeanors, vastly expanding criminal liability before conviction. That raises serious concerns about fairness, due process, and potential abuse especially given how broad and technical some conditions can be (curfews, residence restrictions, reporting requirements, etc.).
We believe that SB 760 undermines basic principles of justice by penalizing people not for new criminal acts, but for alleged failure to comply strictly with release conditions even before guilt is established (remember, we are all innocent until proven guilty). It’s tantamount to registry laws, in the sense that a misstep in following a set of rules (not crimes, but rules) is charged as a separate crime. As with the registry, FAC calls on lawmakers to reconsider this approach and preserve the distinction conditions and new crimes.
Discover more from Florida Action Committee (FAC)
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
This will be struck down by the courts. Just another example of showboating.
Jack
But yet they take migrants / illegals and put them in a camp for un-determined time with no lawyers, no representation or rights. And many of the people they have rounded up were U.S citizens, some that were even actually born here. So, it appears that laws are only for the elite.
I compare that to the registry a bit because many of us were retro-actively applied to the registry with also not getting any say, appeal or justice. No hearings or anything with no way off (At least at the time of its creation)
We have the bill of rights, but they need to add a bill of wrongs because, well you know.
This could dramatically affect the way Florida prosecutors and the courts use Score Sheets. Put simply, getting convicted of the pre-trial violation charge(s) will likely increase the defendant’s criminal history score as applied to his/her subsequent convictions, if any.