Felony Convictions Can Change Your Life Forever

Felony Defense

A felony is the most serious type of crime and may be punished by more than a year's imprisonment or even death. If you have been charged with a crime that calls for a sentence of more than one year in the Florida Department of Corrections, your alleged offense will be treated as a felony. Felonies can include both violent and non-violent crimes. Theft of money or goods on a large scale (grand theft), embezzlement of large sums, assault that causes severe harm to a victim’s body, murder, rape, racketeering, large scale fraud, kidnapping, and serious drug crimes are all serious felony charges. A felony conviction will affect your life severely for a long time. Not only is the punishment severe, other implications of the conviction that can plague you for many years to come. If you are facing felony criminal charges, contact a Canan Law attorney.

Negotiating a Plea Agreement

Your Canan Law criminal defense attorney can sometimes have felony criminal charges dropped by negotiating with the prosecutor. In some cases, your lawyer will ask you to plead guilty to a less serious misdemeanor charge in exchange for the prosecutor's agreement to drop the more serious felony charges. The final decision on whether to accept a proposed plea agreement always rests with you, the defendant.

Depending upon the severity of the crime committed, a defendant who is found guilty may be sentenced to serve some period of probation, to pay a fine, perform community service, make restitution or pay for the monetary losses caused by the crime, in exchange for some time in prison. In Florida, the most severe crimes are punishable by death and involve a Grand Jury indictment.  Patrick Canan and Andrew Morgan are veteran criminal defense attorneys and former lead prosecutors.