RECENT APPELLATE, POST CONVICTION AND SENTENCING NEWS FROM OUR CASES
​The appellate and post-conviction relief wins cited below are not meant to indicate that if you retain Mr. Kent that he will necessarily be able to win your case. Most appellate and post-conviction cases result in adverse decisions, meaning that the client loses, and the majority of state appellate cases are decided by the court without a published decision, referred to as a per curiam affirmed decision sometimes leaving the client with no further avenue of relief. However, this harsh reality makes it all the more important that a client choose his or her appellate or post-conviction counsel carefully, to insure that the best possible appellate or post-conviction brief or motion is presented to the court to increase the chance of success in what is in any event a difficult process. Mr. Kent cannot assure any client of success in his or her appeal or post-conviction proceeding but can only assure the client that he will use his very best efforts to achieve the best possible outcome for the client. A U.S. Department of Justice study done in 2000 for all federal criminal appeals from 1985-1999 showed that defendants had a substantially better chance of reversal on appeal if they had privately retained counsel than if they used court appointed counsel.
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May 18, 2022, Volusia County Circuit Court Judge Clayton granted Mr. Kent's Florida Rule 3.850 Motion for our client, B.J., based on newly discovered evidence of a recanting key trial witness, setting aside a thirty year prison sentence following a trial guilty verdict arising out of a home invasion robbery.
February 28, 2022, Leon County (Tallahassee, Florida) state circuit court Judge Stephen Everett granted Mr. Kent and Mr. McFarland's combination Rule 3.800 and Rule 3.850 motion and vacated a mandatory life sentence for first degree murder for our client James Squaire, Jr., and allowed him to enter a plea to a lesser included charge of second degree murder and a time served sentence followed by life probation. Mr. Squaire was released the following day after the Department of Corrections cleared the release. His mother and father took him back home to Jacksonville where he enjoyed his first meal as a free man. Our client had served 25 years in prison when his family came to retain us. On its face it appeared to be a procedurally barred, hopeless case.
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February 7, 2022, Mr. Kent and Mr. McFarland's client S.B. was charged 2019 in Clay County, Florida with sale of fentanyl in a case arising out of a controlled buy which was video recorded. After lengthy pretrial negotiations and depositions, the case was resolved February 7, 2022 on a lesser charge for probation.
January 19, 2022, Mr. Kent was retained to represent a client, M. R., for sentencing purposes only, who had been convicted at trial of a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm after a prior felony conviction (and prior three year prison sentence) for aggravated assault. The state argued for a ten year prison sentence with a three year minimum mandatory. The charge carried a mininum mandatory sentence of three years. Mr. Kent argued for a three year minimun sentence. The court, Judge Jeb Branham, Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida, after hearing argument of counsel imposed a four year sentence subject to a three year minimum mandatory. The client was pleased with the outcome of the sentencing.
August 31, 2021 - Florida First District Court of Appeal rules in Mr. Kent's favor in an attorney's fee appeal. The winning brief was written by Ryan McFarland, Mr. Kent's partner at Kent & McFarland..
August 2, 2021 - United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia - Mr. Kent's client, a pharmacy owner, was originally indicted under 18 U.S.C. section 846 for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances arising out of an earlier indictment of a "pill mill" owner who was alleged to have conspired with Mr. Kent's client to use the pharmacy as the primary pharmacy to fill the illegitimate prescriptions issued by the "pill mill." However, after prolonged negotiations, a plea agreement was reached for a lesser charge of misprision of a felony and an unconditional recommendation of probation. The plea agreement was not conditioned on a proffer nor was there any substantial assistance or cooperation provided to the government in its case. At sentencing Judge Wood followed the government's recommendation and sentenced Mr. Kent's pharmacy owner client to probation and a $10,000 fine. There was no forfeiture and the pharmacy owner was allowed to keep the pharmacy business. This was a very good outcome for a case in which the guideline range initially appeared to exceed twenty years imprisonment.
June 30, 2021 Florida state Circuit Court granted Mr. Kent's post-conviction Rule 3.850 motion after an evidentiary hearing for our client, J.E., setting aside his trial conviction and 15 year prison sentence for trafficking in heroin and ordering the State to make an offer of time served which the client accepted and was released. Today is the 22nd anniversary of my opening my own then solo practice office, with the support and encouragement of my wife, Caroline. This is a wonderful anniversary present.
June 10, 2021, the Florida First District Court of Appeal affirmed in part and reversed in part the denial of habeas relief for our client R.A.C. The reversal was as to the summary denial of relief on the first ground in the habeas petition, a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to preserve for appeal the trial court's ruling on the admissibility of child hearsay statements. The underlying habeas petition (3.850 motion) was drafted and argued by Mr. Kent and the brief on appeal and oral argument was done by Mr. McFarland.
May 6, 2021 the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta in a 98 page en banc opinion vacated the conviction and sentence of Mr. Kent's client, former United States Congresswoman Corrine Brown, and remanded the case for retrial. The primary opinion was authored by Judge William Pryor.
For a complete list of Mr. Kent's successes please click here to go to our original webpage, www.williamkent.com, which goes back to Mr. Kent's sentencing appeal win at the Eleventh Circuit for real estate flipping infomercial king William J. McCorkle in 2002.