What makes a habitual offender

If your underlying case was tried to a jury, then the jury must be reconvened to determine whether you are a habitual offender. If you did not have a jury trial, then the trial judge is the trier of fact to determine whether you are an Indiana habitual offender.

Having legal counsel with deep knowledge of criminal defense in Indiana at this stage is critical. A seasoned Indiana criminal defense attorney from Keffer Hirschauer LLP can advise you whether it is in your best interest to deny the prior convictions and ask the State to prove them in a separate trial or, instead, whether you should admit to the criminal history alleged and proceed to sentencing.

Wading through Indiana criminal law on habitual offender status can feel like a swim through quicksand. The status has numerous definitions, qualifiers, and exceptions. Among the exceptions are these. First, in the course of your habitual offender proceedings, the State may not seek to add a habitual offender enhancement to an underlying conviction that was elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony because you have a prior conviction.

But the court can use a misdemeanor-raised-to-a-felony as one of the prior unrelated felonies to support habitual offender status. Additionally, even though you may deny having prior unrelated felonies, you may not collaterally attack the prior convictions in the habitual offender proceedings.

In other words, you may not concede that you have the prior conviction but argue that the conviction is erroneous for some reason. This rule does have one exception—you may contest a prior conviction if you can show that it is in some way the result of a violation of the US Constitution or the Indiana Constitution. Habitual offender status is not a crime, but it does come with an additional sentence. If the trier of fact determines that you meet the statutory definition of an Indiana habitual offender, or if you admit to that status, the court can add additional time to your sentence for the underlying offense.

The court must attach the enhancement to the underlying felony conviction with the highest sentence imposed and specify which count or offense is affected. If you were convicted of murder or a Level 1 through Level 4 felony in the underlying case, the court can add six to 20 years to your sentence.

If you were convicted of a Level 5 or Level 6 felony in the case below, the court can add two to six years to your sentence. At Keffer Hirschauer, we understand the seriousness of Indiana habitual offender enhancements.

We will work with you to develop strategies such as expungement to help reduce or minimize your risk of a longer sentence. As with habitual offender enhancements, a prior conviction that has been set aside or reversed on appeal cannot be used as the basis for an HVSO sentence enhancement. Habitual offender status under the Indiana three strikes law has serious consequences for you and your loved ones. Your sentence could be doubled—or more—depending on the underlying offense and the habitual offender enhancement ordered by the trial court.

To protect yourself, you need highly qualified Indiana criminal defense attorneys to help you through the process. Whether your underlying conviction is for a drug crime , sex crime , gun crime , violent crime , theft , or white-collar crime , we know Indiana criminal law at Keffer Hirschauer LLP. Given our time as prosecutors and decades of trial experience collectively, we can help you understand Indiana habitual offender enhancements and fight to make sure your rights are protected throughout the sentencing process.

We want to help. Indiana Criminal Defense Attorneys. The case of recently convicted Keddrick Kennon is a perfect example of the use of the habitual offender law, Marvin says. You have a guy that gets caught 20 years ago, pleads guilty, gets a two or four year sentence and he does a third of that.

After he gets out, he deals drugs again, gets caught and gets a five year sentence. It affects everybody. In Mississippi how do they charge you with a habitual? Do the carge have to he the same three? Can it happen being charged with 3 different charges?

How do they charge you with habitual affender in the sate if Mississippi. Has gone to rehab umpteen times and knows how to work the system and Step dad is a retired Judge and litigator so she gets coached.

DA was not happy last time she was arrested and now is facing violation of probation. She has 2 small children that have had to watch her through this since they were born. Yes i committed fraud in and changed my whole life. Your email address will not be published.

Tuesday at 2 p. The Economic Development Department of Minden is tasked with the responsibility of stimulating the local economy being a catalyst for its growth.

One way it. Habacu Morales, 40, of the block of Woodhaven, was arrested for a warrant for domestic abuse with Child Endangerment. This is done with the hope that it would help curb the rate of repeated criminal activity. Depending on the state, a habitual offender law may increase the severity of punishment that a repeat offender receives.

It may also intensify the number of requirements that a convicted offender must satisfy to complete their probation or parole period or alter the type of crime that they are charged with e.

Again, even though it is not necessary, a habitual offender law may also focus on a specific type of crime. For instance, if an individual commits and is convicted of enough prior incidents of misdemeanor petty theft, then the state statute may provide that their next instance of misdemeanor petty theft will constitute a felony crime.

Thus, they may be issued a prison sentence of up to one year or greater if they are ever convicted of that crime again. The penalties issued during habitual offender sentencing hearings will largely depend on the type of crime committed and the laws of the jurisdiction prosecuting the case. In most cases, however, a habitual offender who has committed the same kind of offense should expect to receive a lengthier prison sentence or supervised probation. On the other hand, if the crime is violent in nature or is related to a drug trafficking conviction, then a defendant can face a prison sentence of at least 25 years to life.

Some common penalties that a habitual offender may face for a conviction may include:. In contrast, defendants who commit the same crime, but are first-time offenders, will typically receive a lighter sentence. Though this will usually depend on the type of crime that was committed. Some other factors that a court may consider when determining what type of penalty to issue a newly convicted habitual offender include:. Similar to the guidelines for crimes with mandatory sentencings, a Three Strikes Law is a law that requires a court to impose a harsher sentence on a defendant who has been convicted of a felony or other serious crime on three separate occasions or upon their third conviction.

The purpose of having a Three Strikes Law is to ensure that repeat offenders receive a long enough, yet appropriate, criminal sentence that will prevent them from being released from jail several times only to return to society to repeat the same crimes again in the future. Legislatures also maintain that the goal behind these laws is to decrease the rate of crime by keeping habitual offenders in prison for longer periods of time. Unfortunately, these laws are sometimes abused and may be used to punish habitual offenders who would better benefit from programs, such as rehabilitative services or therapists, as opposed to prison.

For example, the law would be applied to a case in which a defendant who had a substance abuse problem was convicted numerous times for drug possession. Instead of assisting them in getting the help that they need through counseling or a rehabilitation program, the state would send them to prison only to be released and have them violate their parole or probation, or they would get caught and convicted again of the same crime in the future.

As such, it is no surprise that this hotly debated topic has been revised by both federal and state legislatures. For instance, since the passing of the First Step Act, many states have revised their Three Strikes statutes to apply to only violent felony offenses and certain serious crimes.

Some states, like Maryland, have even amended their laws to extend the number of strikes from three strikes to four strikes for habitual offenders. Mandatory sentencing guidelines, also known as mandatory minimum sentencing laws, refer to pre-established punishments that must be issued to a convicted defendant for committing a certain crime.

For example, in California, a defendant who is charged and convicted of a felony offense after having been previously convicted of at least two serious or violent felony crimes in the past, must receive a minimum prison sentence of 25 years; though it could be longer.

In many cases, such punishments for habitual offenders may be set by a state statute.