Your State Attorney’s Office currently ranks second best in the state for number of convictions and is ranked fourth best for the number of cases it has taken to jury trials across the state of Florida.
The SAO for the Fourth Judicial Circuit is responsible for the prosecution of all crimes committed in Duval, Clay, and Nassau Counties in Northeast Florida.
“We’re putting the violent criminals away like we said we were going to do,” State Attorney Angela Corey tells WOKV.
Since Corey was sworn into office in 2009, the SAO has nearly tripled the number of defendants going to prison. Corey and her administration have sent triple the number of people to prison compared to Miami and double the number of both Tampa and Orlando.
“At one point we led the state in the number of people going to state prison,” says Corey. “We are sending the largest percentage of convicted felons to state prison and a much smaller percentage to our Duval County Jail.”
Corey is especially dedicated to prosecuting previously convicted criminals.
“If you are a violent or repeat offender, you should be in state prison and that’s where we’re sending you,” says Corey. “Florida has very good laws to deal with violent offenders, very good laws to deal with repeat offenders, and we are implementing those laws, taking full advantage of those laws, as we should, to protect this community.”
But the SAO is not taking all of their cases to court; Corey says they are offering pleas bargains. But she does say they are pushing all gun cases to go to court instead of a plea bargain.
“We are still offering deals on minimum mandatory cases but at some point we’ve just have to say no, we’ve got to get this person put away because they are a danger to our community. We’ve got to keep them locked up.”
Before Corey took office, the SAO was ranked 20th for the number of convictions, last place in the state.
Corey attributes her administrations success to aggressive prosecution, filing and trying the right cases, and getting caught up on the buildup of cases.
Sign Up
