A major Florida court has ruled that a drug not recognized by name in Florida’s law prohibiting possession of substitute cathinones (bath salts) is still illegal and subject to the same criminal penalties as other controlled substances recognized by name under the statute. This article will discuss the Fourth District Court of Appeal’s Jackson v. State ruling, and what it …

Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal reversed the denial of a defendant’s motion for a new trial in a lewd molestation case on the basis that a juror improperly withheld important information during jury selection – but declined to find the prosecutor’s closing argument so improper as to warrant a mistrial. CASE: Young v. State, 720 So.2d 1101 (Fla. 1st …

Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal reversed a defendant’s conviction for cocaine possession, finding that a prosecutor’s impermissible “bolstering” of a testifying police officer’s credibility during closing arguments may have led to the defendant being convicted. CASE: Williams v. State, 673 So.2d 974 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996) Charge(s): Possession of Cocaine Outcome: Conviction REVERSED, as the prosecutor improperly “bolstered” the …

Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that a defendant was not entitled to an entrapment jury instruction because there was no evidence that he was induced to commit the charged crime and he introduced no evidence of his lack of predisposition to do so. CASE: Davis v. State, 937 So.2d 300 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006) Charge(s): Sale of Cocaine …

Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal affirmed a defendant’s conviction, finding that the State offered a “genuine” race-neutral reason for exercising a peremptory strike on a Black juror. CASE: Bowden v. State, 787 So.2d 185 (Fla. 1st DCA 2001) Charge(s): Burglary, Criminal Mischief, Resisting Without Violence Outcome: Convictions AFFIRMED, as the State had a “genuine,” race-neutral reason for using a …

Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal reversed a defendant’s conviction because the State failed to satisfactorily explain their reasons for peremptorily striking Black jurors – but one 1st DCA judge dissented. CASE: Fleming v. State, 825 So.2d 1027 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002) Charge(s): Trafficking in Cocaine, Fleeing to Elude Outcome: Convictions REVERSED due to potential racial discrimination in jury selection …

Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that the jury had a sufficient evidentiary basis to find that the defendant was not subjectively entrapped in a heroin sale sting – despite the defendant’s “reasonable” argument that he was entitled to dismissal of the charge due to entrapment. CASE: Hall v. State, 326 So.3d 1188 (Fla. 1st DCA 2021) Charge(s): Sale …

Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that because the trial judge failed to evaluate the “genuineness” of the State’s reason for exercising a peremptory strike on a Black female juror was grounds to reverse the defendant’s convictions and remand the matter for a new trial. CASE: Simmons v. State, 940 So.2d 580 (Fla. 1st DCA 2006) Charge(s): Sale of …

Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that a man who hit a woman pushing her baby in a stroller, killing her in a crosswalk, was only driving his vehicle “carelessly” at the time of the crash – affirming the dismissal of a vehicular homicide charge against him. CASE: State v. Del Rio, 854 So.2d 692 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003) …