In South Florida, and all of its jurisdictions including Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach, Broward County, Dade county, and Palm Beach county, not every piece of evidence is admissible in court. To determine this, Florida Statutes decide when evidence can be admitted and which type of evidence is not…
According to Florida Statute 806.01, arson is when any person willfully and unlawfully, by fire or explosion, damages or causes to be damaged any dwelling, either occupied or not. What this means is that arson is basically the damage of a property by fire or explosion. To prove that the…
In South Florida and in the Counties of Broward, Miami Dade, Palm Beach and in the cities of Fort Lauderdale and Miami, robbery is when a person takes money or other type of property with the intent to permanently or temporarily deprive the person of the property, when using some…
An Alibi is a defense in criminal cases. In South Florida, and all of its jurisdictions, such as Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Broward County, Dade County and Palm Beach County, a person accused of a crime can use the criminal defense of alibi in court. An alibi in…
In South Florida and all its jurisdictions such as Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Broward County, Dade County and Palm Beach County, people are often confused with battery and assault charges. Details about what constitute assault and battery can be found in chapter 784 of Florida Statutes. So why…
The US Supreme Court ruled this summer that it is unconstitutional for juvenile offenders to get mandatory life sentences without parole. But Cristian Fernandez, a 13 year old boy from Jacksonville, Florida, may change the way juveniles convicted of first degree murder are sentenced. Cristian Fernandez is the youngest inmate…
Not only in the counties of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade but also in other areas of South Florida, when a crime is being investigated, one of the most important elements is the Mens Rea. This is a phrase in Latin which means a Guilty Mind. The guilty mind is…
Diminished capacity and insanity are terms often confused in criminal issues. In South Florida, when we talk about diminished capacity we are talking about a mental inability, caused by intoxication, trauma, or disease, that makes the person not accountable for their actions. This means that they were not able, due…
There are cases that South Florida considers as “Capital felonies”. These cases are the ones punishable by life in prison or even death penalty. These cases mostly involve murders, capital drug trafficking, armed kidnapping and rape. The felony courts in Ft Lauderdale, Miami and Palm Beach consider aggravating and mitigating…
In South Florida, there are statutes that define controlled and non-controlled substances, as well as statues that define the amount of a particular drug that is needed for a criminal charge to take place. After the “War on Drugs” in 1980, the number of cases involving drug trafficking has increased…