Florida imposes severe consequences for those individuals who commit new crimes after they have recently been released from prison. Florida Statute Section 775.082 imposes certain mandatory sentences for these individuals.

If a person commits a certain felony (listed below) within 3 years from being released from State Prison, then that individual will be charged under the above Prison Release Re-Offender (PRR) Statute.

If this individual is convicted of this newly committed felony, then according to the PRR Statute, the individual must be sentenced to the statutory maximum of the new crime. For example if a person is released from prison and within 3 years, the person is charged with robbery and then is convicted of the robbery charge, the judge must impose a 15 year mandatory sentence. Additionally, there is no gain-time under this sentence and thus the individual will do the entire 15 year sentence.

If instead, the new charge was robbery with a firearm, than because robbery with a firearm is a felony punishable by life, then the sentence for that individual must be life under the PRR statute.

Most often in these types of cases, prosecutors will not make a plea offer. The prosecutors will claim that because the case is PRR, they have no discretion to impose a lesser penalty.

For this reason, these cases require a tremendous amount of time and hours in order to effectively and aggressively prepare them for trial. Over the course of his career, Mr. Tendler has represented numerous defendants charged with life felonies under the PRR Statute. Mr. Tendler has been successful on many of these cases.