Woods v. State

Marlena Woods, a homeless mom with four children, pled guilty to shoplifting food for her family from a Jacksonville Walmart. Due to prior petit theft convictions, she scored 8.3 points on her sentencing scoresheet, which meant a presumptive nonstate sentence not exceeding twelve months in the Duval County jail under section 775.082(10), Florida Statutes (2009), a statute not mentioned at her plea colloquy. Under that statute, the State argued that she should be sent to state prison because sentencing her to county jail (or some other nonstate sanction) would present a “danger to the public”…