Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog
In Florida, a battery where no weapon is used is normally a misdemeanor crime, which means the maximum penalty is one year in jail. A battery against someone not related to the defendant is a serious charge but not normally as serious as a domestic battery charge and certainly not as serious as a felony battery charge. Using a weapon during a battery can certainly raise the stakes for a battery charge and make it a felony punishable by years in prison. Outside of the domestic battery context where a defendant has a prior domestic battery conviction, battery charges are typically going to remain misdemeanors if no weapon or serious injury is involved.
However, there is one type of battery that we see charged fairly often that does not involve a weapon and often does not result in any, let alone serious, injuries to the alleged victim. Battery by strangulation is a third degree felony in Florida punishable by a maximum of five years in prison. One might expect that the battery by strangulation charge requires forceful strangulation and evidence of the victim’s inability to breathe for the state to bring those charges. That is not always the case. As criminal defense lawyers working in the Jacksonville, Florida area, we have see quite a few battery by strangulation arrests where, at worst, the defendant merely puts his/her hands on or near the victim’s neck. This is not sufficient to maintain a battery by strangulation charge in Florida. The Florida law requires the defendant to impede the normal breathing of the victim or the circulation of the blood of the victim by applying pressure on the neck, nose or mouth and creating a risk of great bodily harm.
The Florida law, as written, seems to require a significant effort to choke, or strangle, the victim. However, we often see police officers arresting a person for battery by strangulation where there is just an allegation that the defendant merely put his/her hands on the victim’s neck without evidence of a restricted airway or blood flow or a risk of serious bodily harm. In many cases where battery by strangulation is charged, the state may have overcharged the case and the misdemeanor is much more appropriate than the more serious felony charge, and this type of case must be defended appropriately.