What are pros and cons of deferred adjudication?
Deferred started out as a legislature’s response to help younger offenders who are charged with felony offenses, who would be given another break, would be placed on probation. If you serve that probationary period successfully, you would not have a felony conviction on your record. [You’d] still have a felony arrest you’d have to answer for the rest of your life. But at least you can say, when you’re answering that question, “Have you ever been convicted or arrested for a felony conviction?” you can put down no. It just helped out the younger offenders. Over the years, it’s been spread out to cover just about everybody. Anyone, no matter what their age, can apply for deferred adjudication in the appropriate case. But it has downsides? Let’s say you’re given a first-degree felony offense, and between five years and 99 years to life. You ask for deferred adjudication, and the court grants it. So upon a violation, the court would have anywhere between five years and 99 years or life as t
