When Form 2220 Applicable 2023-2024

P>Music. Hi, this is Mike Haber. Thank you for asking me. Are there any defenses to a robbery charge in the state of Florida? Robbery is a specific intent crime. The state has to prove you took something with the requisite intent to steal it and at that time you used force or intimidation. That said, there are some standard pretrial defenses that can be raised in any criminal case, but there are customized defenses that may be applicable to a specific charge of robbery. For instance, if the taking of the property occurred as a mere afterthought to a use of force or violence, then you may not have committed a robbery, at least not at the base second-degree felony level. Robbery could be argued that there was a snatch-and-grab, but that's going to be a much less serious offense than any other form of robbery. An example of this afterthought defense might occur where two people get into a fistfight, one of them gets knocked out while he's lying there on the ground, the other person then forms the intent to grab his watch. In this example, it would not be a robbery to take an unconscious person's watch because the taking was not pre-planned and it was merely an afterthought that occurred once the fight had already concluded. It's a defense to a robbery charge if the taker has a good faith belief that he's the owner of the property or is otherwise entitled to immediate possession. We call this a bona fide claim of right. If it exists, it negates element number 4 of a robbery charge, or the element that requires that the property be that of another. Thank you for your question. I appreciate your having asked it, and I invite you to ask...