In the case of Chicone v. State, the Florida Supreme Court said that in criminal law, it’s important to prove that a person had a guilty mind, or intent, to commit a crime. This means that a person should know that what they were doing was wrong. Jerry Jay Chicone III was convicted of possession of cocaine, but argued that the court should have to prove that he knew the cocaine was illegal. The Florida Supreme Court agreed with him, saying that the court made a mistake by not proving that Chicone knew the cocaine was illegal. The Chicone case dealt with the possession of cocaine and whether the law required the person to knowingly have the drug. The court said that it did, but then the legislature changed the law to say that knowledge of the drug’s illegal nature is not required. The legislature changed the law to make possessing cocaine and other drug offenses strict liability crimes, meaning someone can be found guilty without meaning to break the law. But a court case called Chicone said that goes against the Constitution. Another case, State v. Rubio, said something similar about a different law. It’s still not clear if the new law is okay or not. According to the law, possession of cocaine is considered a strict liability offense, which means you can get in big trouble for it even if you didn’t know you had it. However, the Supreme Court has not definitively said whether it’s okay to give harsh punishments for strict liability offenses. Some cases suggest it might be unconstitutional, but it’s not totally clear. The early cases suggest that punishing a violation as a felony without proving intent is not in line with the public welfare offense theory. The Florida Legislature passed a law saying that possession of cocaine does not require proof of intent, but the courts have said that this may be unconstitutional. This means that the legality of the law is still up for debate. The Supreme Court found a law unconstitutional because it didn’t require proof of intent. Now, they have to figure out if there’s another way to save the law. They can’t punish someone with a felony for a crime if they didn’t mean to do it. So, a law that doesn’t require proof of intent can only be punished as a misdemeanor.
Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/after-chicone-blasting-the-bedrock-of-the-criminal-law/
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