>>Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal said it was sending the case back to a lower court to “discharge Connolly therefrom.” But it also said, “Connolly’s discharge shall be stayed until and any all post-appeal motions are final.”
>>The technical decision issued by the court turned on the fact that Connolly was convicted of second-degree murder with a firearm.
The four-year statute of limitations on that crime had run out, but a lower court, after Connolly was convicted, “reclassified” the crime to a “life felony,” a crime for which the statute of limitations had not run out. The court sentenced him to 40 years in prison.
“Connolly argues that, as neither the indictment nor the jury verdict support the reclassification, the reclassification was fundamentally erroneous. We agree,” the court said in its ruling.