- Florida prosecutors have broad authority to transfer juvenile offenders to adult court. The state attorney can ask juvenile courts to transfer any offender older than 14 to adult court, regardless of the offense. Repeat offenses can also land a juvenile in adult court. State attorneys and judges have little discretion to keep offenders in juvenile court when a child older than 14 has a previous adjudication for a serious violent felony or three prior felony-class offenses where at least one involved gun possession or violence. With a parent or guardian's approval, a child can ask juvenile court to transfer his case to adult criminal court. Upon conviction in adult court, the child cannot return to juvenile court for trial on any future offenses unless the adult court judge imposed juvenile penalties despite the child's conviction as an adult.
- When a prosecutor wants to try a juvenile offender in adult court, she must file a motion asking to transfer the case. The juvenile court then holds hearings on the motion before deciding whether to allow the transfer. The judge weighs a variety of factors including the severity of the crime, whether it involved violence or premeditation, the offender's prior record and the "sophistication and maturity of the child." Judges must provide a written explanation of their decisions. Once a judge approves a transfer to adult court, the state will prosecute any future offenses by the same juvenile in adult court.
- In addition to waiver provisions that allow the transfer of juvenile offenders to adult court, prosecutors also have discretion to bring adult charges directly. The rules differ depending on the age of the child. For serious violent felonies, it applies to juveniles as young as 14, but any felony-level offense can justify direct filing against a 16- or 17-year old. In either case, the state attorney must decide that punishing the offender as an adult serves the public interest. Ordinarily, prosecutors cannot file directly on misdemeanor charges, except when the offender is 16 or 17 and has at least two prior juvenile adjudications, including one felony-level offense.
- Florida law describes a variety of situations in which prosecutors must bring adult charges against juvenile offenders. For 16- or 17-year-olds, three prior felony-level offenses or one prior violent felony will land them in adult criminal court. Causing death or serious injury while driving a stolen or carjacked vehicle will also earn an offender a ticket to adult criminal court and so will committing an offense using a firearm or destructive device.
- If a grand jury indicts a juvenile for a crime that carries life imprisonment or the death penalty, that crime and any related offenses get tried in adult court. If the juvenile has other pending felony cases unrelated to the indictment, the juvenile court transfers those to adult court as well. The adult trial court must impose an adult sentence for a conviction on an indicted offense. If it acquits the juvenile on the indicted offense, any transferred but unrelated felony charges will stay in adult court, but the judge must follow juvenile sentencing rules for those crimes.
- Even when Florida courts try juveniles as adults, convicted offenders may not face adult sentences. During sentencing, the adult court considers the same factors as a juvenile court does in deciding whether to transfer a child out of the juvenile system. The Florida Department of Corrections and the Department of Juvenile Justice both present evidence about the most appropriate way to deal with a convicted juvenile offender. Convictions for indictment offenses automatically earn adult sentences, but in other cases, the court can impose adult sentences or juvenile sanctions.
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