Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: State violation of plea bargain

I doubt that you are the only one in Florida to be charged under that statute. One was charged here in Polk County recently. Maybe that was you. To answer your question, however, it is my understanding that the courts have upheld this provision. However, in a law with a similar retroactive application, at lease one court has held that the retroactive application gives you a right to void your plea agreement, and go back to square one. If this is of interest to you, please give me a call. (863) 648-1700

Re: State violation of plea bargain

I am assuming from the text of your question that you are raising a question under Calfornia law although the header included California and Florida and you have received an answer from a Florida attorney. I limit my response to California law where the registration requirement can be found in Penal Code section 290. You state that at the time you entered your plea and were sentenced, you were not required to register but due to subsequent amendments to the law, that requirement is now imposed upon you. This raises a question whether the constitution forbids requiring you to register. The theory would be that applying that requirement to you would violate that ex post facto prohibitions of the federal and state constitutions. In order for that to be true, the courts would first have to find that the registration requirement constitutes punishment. The answer to your question is found in the case of In re Avila (2001) 89 Cal.App.4th 758 where the court went into the issue of registration as punishment in considerable depth. In short, the court said requiring registration may have punitive aspects but its principal purpose is regulatory--not to punish. Therefore, imposing this requirement after the fact does not raise an ex post facto problem no does it constitute cruel or unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.