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Samantha Bee says buying weed, tampering with an odometer or a lobster trap are felonies
Comedian Samantha Bee traveled to Florida, where she says "retirees and democracy go to die," to shed light on how the state makes it difficult for felons to regain the right to vote.
On her TBS show Full Frontal on May 10, Bee spotlighted efforts by advocates to collect about 700,000 signatures to place a question on the 2018 ballot.
The amendment, which would have to pass by 60 percent to be enacted, calls for restoring voting rights for felons automatically for those who have fully completed their sentences including parole or probation. That would not apply to those convicted of murder or sexual offenses who would still have to ask the Cabinet to restore their rights, a process which is currently slow and cumbersome.
In Florida, about 1.7 million felons have lost their right to vote.
Bee portrayed some of those felonies as not so serious.
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"In Florida felonies can be things like buying weed, tampering with an odometer or disturbing a lobster trap," Bee said. "So basically spring break."
Bee’s big point: Felons in Florida aren’t just axe murderers.
We will fact-check if the crimes Bee cited are felonies. A spokesman for Bee declined to comment on the record.
Under the Florida Constitution, a convicted felon cannot vote, serve on a jury, or hold public office until civil rights have been restored. The policy stems back to the Jim Crow era.
And that doesn’t only apply to violent offenses, said Randall Berg of the Florida Justice Institute.
"Any felony conviction in Florida, no matter how small or seemingly trivial, results in the loss of your civil rights," Berg said.
There have been efforts on and off since the 1970s to make the process easier. But in 2011, Gov. Rick Scott and the members of the Florida Cabinet decided to make the process more cumbersome and set a minimum five-year waiting period.
Through April 1, 2017, about 2,600 felons have gotten their rights restored since 2011, while more than 10,000 cases are pending.
Bee cited three statutes that are felonies in Florida:
• 893.13 (2) (a) 2: This statute bans buying or possession with intent to sell drugs, including marijuana which is a third-degree felony. Possession of a small amount of cannabis -- less than 20 grams -- is a misdemeanor.
• 319.35 (1) (a) tampering with an odometer: "It is unlawful for any person knowingly to tamper with, adjust, alter, set back, disconnect, or fail to connect an odometer of a motor vehicle, or to cause any of the foregoing to occur to an odometer of a motor vehicle, so as to reflect a lower mileage than the motor vehicle has actually been driven..." This is a third-degree felony.
• 379.367 (4) disturbing a lobster trap: "It is unlawful for any person willfully to molest any spiny lobster traps, lines, or buoys belonging to another without permission of the license holder." This is a third-degree felony.
While we were unable to find any data on how many people had lost their rights based on particular statutes, we did obtain conviction data for the statutes Bee cited from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Here are the convictions for those offenses between 2012 and 2016, which make up a tiny slice of all felony convictions in that period:
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• Buying or possessing marijuana: 398 felony convictions with specification of marijuana.
• Messing with an odometer: 1 felony conviction
• Disturbing a lobster trap: 4 felony convictions
Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, pointed to national data for 2006 that showed about 18 percent of felony convictions in state courts were for violent offenses. The majority of convictions were drug and property offenses.
"We tend to think of felonies as being represented in the prison population, but that's a skewed view that doesn't incorporate the more numerous people who are sentenced to some type of probation or community service," Mauer said.
Bee interviewed one person who opposes automatic restoration of rights for felons generally: Roger Clegg, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. He has called for states to address restoration on a case-by-case basis.
Clegg said that of course some crimes appear less serious than others, but the ones Bee cited are serious for the victims. For example, if someone sells a car that has 200,000 miles on it but has tampered with the odometer to show only 20,000 miles, that is cheating the buyer out of thousands of dollars.
"You can ask someone who makes his or her living as a lobster fisherman if it’s a trivial matter if someone ‘molests’ (the statute’s word) his or her traps," he said.
Bee said, "In Florida felonies can be things like buying weed, tampering with an odometer or disturbing a lobster trap. So basically spring break."
Bee is correct that these crimes are felonies on the books in Florida. Only a handful of felony convictions for tampering with an odometer or disturbing a lobster trap in recent years.
The drug statute she cited resulted in about 400 felony convictions related to marijuana. For small amounts of marijuana, the crime is a misdemeanor.
With that clarifying note, we rate this statement Mostly True.
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Our Sources
Florida Commission on Offender Review, Clemency, Accessed May 22, 2017
National Conference of state Legislatures, Felon voting rights, Sept. 2016
Brennan Center, Voting Rights Restoration Efforts in Florida, March 6, 2017
U.S. Department of Justices, Felony sentences in state courts: 2006 statistical tables, 2009
Heritage Foundation, Legal memorandum by Hans A. von Spakovsky and Roger Clegg, Feb. 11, 2015
Florida Statutes, 319.35, Accessed May 22, 2017
Florida Statutes, 893.13, Accessed May 22, 2017
Florida Statutes, 893.03, Accessed May 22, 2017
Florida Statutes, 322.34, Accessed May 22, 2017
Florida Statutes, 403.161 Accessed May 22, 2017
Florida Statutes, 24.118, Accessed May 22, 2017
Florida Statutes, 810.09, Accessed May 22, 2017
Florida Keys News, "Lobster poacher gets a year in county jail, banned from water for five years," April 8, 2015
Panama City News Herald, "Couple charged with odometer tampering at car dealership,"Oct. 20, 2015
Sun Sentinel, "Love hurts: Man arrested for releasing helium balloon with his girlfriend," Feb. 22, 2013
Tampa Bay Times, "Samantha Bee touts push to restore felon voting rights in Florida," May 18, 2017
Tampa Bay Times, "Florida's top court green lights voting right for felons ballot question," April 20, 2017
Tampa Bay Times op-ed, "Florida's felon vote: Destroying lives and wasting taxpayer dollars," Dec. 29, 2016
Miami Herald, "Florida ‘radically out-of-step’ in denying felons right to vote, report says," Dec. 23, 2016
PolitiFact Florida, "Voting-rights activist says one-quarter of disenfranchised felons in U.S. live in Florida," Jan. 23, 2014
PolitiFact, "Are the 'overwhelming majority of violent criminals' Democrats? Ted Cruz said so," Dec. 1, 2015
Interview, Paul Flemming, Office of the State Courts Administrator spokesman, May 22, 2017
Interview, Jessica Cary, Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman, May 22, 2017
Interview, Kelly Corder, Florida Commission on Offender Review spokeswoman, May 22, 2017
Interview, Rob Klepper, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission Division of Law Enforcement spokesman, May 22, 2017
Interview, Marc Mauer, The Sentencing Project executive director, May 22, 2017
Interview, Randall C. Berg, Jr., Executive Director Florida Justice Institute executive director, May 22, 2017
Interview, Howard Simon, American Civil Liberties Union of Florida executive director, May 23, 2017
Interview, Desmond Meade, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition president, May 19, 2017
Interview, Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity and a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Reagan and Bush administrations, May 24, 2017
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Samantha Bee says buying weed, tampering with an odometer or a lobster trap are felonies
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