Title: First-time Offender Plea Deal Pilot Program

Summary: Creating a first-time offender plea deal pilot program; providing eligibility requirements for the program; allowing eligible offenders to be resentenced in accordance with a previously declined plea agreement; specifying duties of the Department of Corrections; providing for expiration of the program, etc.

Full Text:
An act relating to the first-time offender plea deal pilot program; creating a first-time offender plea deal pilot program; providing eligibility requirements for the program; allowing eligible offenders to be resentenced in accordance with a previously declined plea agreement; specifying duties of the Department of Corrections; providing for expiration of the program; providing an effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1.  First-time offender plea deal pilot program.  (1)   There is created a pilot program for inmates in the custody of the Department of Corrections. To qualify for the program an inmate must: (a)   Be a first-time felony offender. (b)   Have served years or more of his or her sentence. (c)   Have been offered a plea agreement before trial which he or she declined to accept. Such a plea agreement must: 1.   Have provided the inmate with a shorter sentence than the sentence the inmate ultimately received; and 2.   Be provable either through documentation or other evidence. (d)   Maintain eligibility to earn gain-time due to a lack of a disciplinary violation while he or she has been incarcerated. (e)   Not have been convicted for actually killing a victim or for actually engaging in an act constituting a sexual battery as defined in s. 794.011(1). (2)   Beginning October 1, 2023, an inmate eligible under subsection (1) may petition either the circuit court that originally sentenced the inmate or the circuit court that has jurisdiction over the area in which the inmate currently resides and may request that he or she be resentenced in accordance with the terms of the declined plea agreement. (3)   If the circuit court determines by a preponderance of the evidence that the inmate is eligible under subsection (1), the court must resentence the inmate in accordance with the terms of sentence in the plea agreement. When the circuit court determines the inmate s eligibility, the Department of Corrections shall release the inmate or recalculate the release date accordingly, as appropriate. (4)   This section expires September 30, 2025. Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2023.