Enhancements

Enhancements are a very powerful tool for the prosecution to use against the defendant in a criminal trial. An enhancement increases the amount of time that a defendant will spend in prison. The most common examples of enhancements are priors and gang relations.

Priors are straightforward, have you the defendant committed or been convicted of any prior felonies? If so, your sentence will be increased for each prior that you committed. For example, lets say you have committed three prior felonies and you are now out of prison and not on parole. You commit a new crime and are found guilty. Lets say the sentences is for one year. The judge will be required to add three (3) years to your sentence; one for each prior you have committed. This gives the prosecutor a lot of ground on which to negotiate against the defendant.

Gang enhancements are a little different. A gang enhancement can make a simple misdemeanor a felony offense. This means you could easily serve years in prison for something as simple as shoplifting. This tool is abused by the prosecution because the definition of a gang is vague. In general if you are a minority the prosecution will try to get a gang enhancement to be added to your charges. One's connection to a gang can be old or no longer exist. The prosecution doesn't care because getting convictions is all that matters to them. The prosecution has to show that the crime was committed on the behalf or for the benefit of the gang.

This sounds like it would be hard to prove for a person that left a gang 5 years ago, but if you have tattoos or other distinctive markings from a gang you are an easy target for the prosecution. The police and prosecution have wide latitude on what the present and how to convince the jury that you are a gang member.

As a general rule, enhancements make it much harder for a defendant to get a fair trial or for their counsel to get a good deal for their client.