Would it not be a good thing if every citizen that ever thought about committing a crime could see beforehand what the punishment was for the chosen crime? Oh, wait, you can do that if you look it up. Take Florida for example. This state actually made a chart of crimes, described the crimes fully, and tells you exactly what to expect when you lose at your trial. Do you want to take a closer look? Okay, let's say that you were thinking about committing a burglary (or you already have) in Florida.

Burglary in Florida

There are five known charges of burglary and burglary-related offenses in Florida. Given the nature of some of these charges, you could be charged with more than one offense when you are arrested. ALL burglary charges in Florida are felonies, even the charge of being arrested with burglary tools in your possession when you have not yet burglarized a property! Those are some pretty heavy charges!

Time and Money for the Maximum Sentence

The maximum punishments to fit your intended crime in Florida rack up quickly. For instance, if you choose to burgle a church wherein a handful of people are praying and then sneak out the back to see what you can get out of the priest's car before you are caught red-handed with your burglary tools, your maximum punishment would be $10,000, plus restitution, and twenty-five years in the state penitentiary. If you were also planning to blow up the rectory in an attempt to kill the priest who did some wrong against you, then you would get an extra $10,000 and another thirty years tacked onto your prison sentence. That is all for one burglary and one blow-up plan that just blew up in your face.

Burglary Offense Law and Your Defense

Getting caught, either with stolen goods or with tools and explosives commonly used in the burglary "trade," is going to make it very difficult for your lawyer to defend you. Yet, your lawyer may be able to talk down the sentence if you have never done this before. If given the choice between prison and money, It is wiser to take a deal where money is your only punishment. You definitely would not want to spend dozens of hot Floridian summers inside a state penitentiary until your release date. Also, it is easier to borrow money to pay steep fines and pay it off through honest work than it is losing everything financially while behind bars.

To learn more, contact a lawyer like Cheryl Brown Attorney at Law. 

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