Senate Considers Allowing Judges More Sentencing Discretion
The Senate Judiciary Committee this week voted overwhelmingly to give judges more leeway to depart from minimum mandatory sentences for certain non-violent drug trafficking crimes.
The measure — SB 468, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg — would allow judges to depart from minimum mandatory sentences in certain drug trafficking cases only when the defendant did not “engage in a continuing criminal enterprise,” did not use a weapon or threaten violence, or cause death or serious bodily injury.
The committee approved the measure 5-1.
