Justice for People Convicted Under Illegal Drug Sting?
The best thing that can happen after you plead not guilty to criminal charges is that the state dismisses the charges against you during the pretrial discovery phase. The next best thing is that the jury acquits you at trial; if this happens, then pursuant to the “no double jeopardy” rule, the state can never again prosecute you on the same charges, even if new incriminating evidence later emerges. This is not how most criminal cases go, though. More than 90 percent of defendants in state and federal criminal cases plead guilty. A criminal conviction, whether at trial or after a guilty plea, is not always the end of the story. It is possible to appeal your conviction if your trial, or the investigation leading to your guilty plea, was unfair, and if you prevail, the court will overturn your conviction. An even better scenario than that is for the state to unilaterally vacate your conviction, where it withdraws your guilty plea and drops the charges. Thousands of Florida defendants could get their convictions vacated as Florida’s State Attorney seeks to remedy the injustice arising from an illegal sting operation that led to many arrests and convictions decades ago. If you were arrested on drug charges after a reverse sting operation, contact a Florida drug offenses attorney.
Florida State Attorney Seeks to Vacate Convictions of Thousands of Defendants Arrested for Buying Police-Made Cocaine
The crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and the brutal police response to it have inspired plenty of fascinating fictional tales, but the truth is even more horrifying. If you are imagining cops seizing crack cocaine at traffic stops and then taking it to the police station and smoking it, you need to think bigger. Between 1988 and 1990, the Broward Sheriff’s Office manufactured crack cocaine and then took it to economically depressed areas of South Florida and sold it to addicted buyers.
The result was that several thousand people faced charges for possessing or buying cocaine. Since some of the transactions took place near school, some of the defendants received enhanced penalties. This was before the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 took effect, so the mandatory minimum sentences for drug charges were longer than they are today. Some of the defendants convicted under this reverse sting operation are still behind bars today. Others have finished their sentences but are still living with the consequences of the criminal convictions.
In December 2024, Florida State Attorney Harold Pryor announced plans to vacate the convictions of defendants arrested under this reverse sting operation. The Florida Supreme Court ruled the BSO’s actions illegal in 1993, but the only result was that the BSO had to stop making its own crack; this did nothing to help the people who had been unfairly arrested and convicted.
Contact FL Drug Defense Group About Drug Cases
A Central Florida criminal defense lawyer can help you if you got arrested when an undercover officer tried to sell you illegal drugs. Contact FL Drug Defense Group in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.
Sources:
theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/10/florida-crack-cocaine-convictions-vacated
npr.org/2024/12/10/g-s1-37578/florida-prosecutor-overturn-convictions-cocaine-sting
