Criminal Sentences Are Clear Cut, Except When They Are Not

The moment at a criminal trial where a judge declares that the jury has found the defendant not guilty is such an intense feeling of relief that, if it happens to you, everything except the fact that you do not have to go to prison and do not have to have a criminal conviction attached to your name for the rest of your life will be a blur. On the other hand, when you receive a guilty verdict, time stands still, and the entire future you had envisioned disappears. All you can do is wait until your sentencing hearing. Your lawyer will have told you, as you prepared to go to trial or to negotiate a plea deal, that there is a range of sentences for the charge you are facing, or for the charge that you plan to negotiate for as part of your plea deal. In other words, if you are accused of a crime where the maximum penalty is five to ten years in prison, then a ten-year prison sentence is only the worst-case scenario. The sentence that the judge pronounces at the sentencing hearing does not tell the whole story. The rights of defendants in criminal cases continue, even if the defendant gets a conviction and, if this happens, even after the defendant has begun serving his or her sentence. Here, our Miami criminal defense lawyer explains the ways that defendants who plead guilty to criminal charges can reduce their sentences before and after the court issues them.

If You Are Convicted of a Crime That Warrants Two to Ten Years in Prison, How Long Until You Are Free?

In criminal court, judges do not decide whether defendants are innocent or guilty, but they do use their judgment in other important matters that affect the defendant’s future. For example, they decide whether a certain piece of evidence is admissible at trial if the prosecution plans to show this evidence to the jury, but the defense argues that doing so would be a violation of the defendant’s rights or of the rules of criminal procedure.

Likewise, the law determines the range of sentences for any given offense, and judges decide on a case-by-case basis which sentence within that range to impose if a defendant is convicted. For example, if an offense carries a sentence of two to ten years, the court might hand down a sentence of three years, five years, 28 months, or any length of time within that range. If the defendant gets a conviction for several counts of the same crime, the court might order him or her to serve the sentences for those counts consecutively, meaning one after another, or concurrently, meaning at the same time. For some crimes, the court can choose between incarceration or probation. The judge might also choose to order the defendant to serve the sentence on house arrest, or to serve the sentence in a minimum-security facility where the defendant can leave the facility during work hours to work at the same job the defendant has held since before the criminal case.

How to Reduce Your Sentence After the Court Has Issued It

If, in 2026, the court sentences you to seven years in prison, it does not mean that there is no chance that you will be eating chicken wings with your family at the Pines Ale House before 2033. You may be able to get time taken off your sentence for good behavior, but the earliest you can be released on those grounds is after you have served 85 percent of your sentence. In 2025, lawmakers proposed a bill to reduce the length of time you must serve before getting out early for good behavior to 72 percent, but it did not pass.

Many sentences include the possibility of parole. If you become eligible for parole after serving a certain amount of time, you will have a parole hearing, where the judge will decide whether to parole you, but not everyone who gets to the parole hearing stage gets out of prison early. Inmates who are in poor health can also petition the court for compassionate release, even if parole eligibility is not part of their sentence. Finally, it is possible to appeal your sentence if you believe that it is excessive, even if you acknowledge that you freely entered a guilty plea or that the jury’s guilty verdict was fair.

Contact Our Criminal Defense Attorneys

A South Florida criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges where there is a wide range of sentences for a conviction.  Contact Ratzan & Faccidomo in Miami, Florida for a confidential consultation about your case.

Source:

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