November 7, 2008

Lynch, 33 FLW 880, Fla. Marital communication privilege, 90.504, only applies to communications originally intended to be confidential and not apply to a murder-suicide letter from a def to his wife which included the def's request that the wife disclose all the info to the murder's victim family. Privilege did not apply to 2 telephone conversations made by def to his wife during the commission of the charged offenses where the phone conversations were done in the presence of third parties.

Bartlett, 33 FLW 2521, 1st DCA. Error to allow primary detective to testify before he received a warrant for def's arrest for murder, he had ruled out self-defense-error for ofc to give lay opinion not harmless where could not show no reasonable possibility that the testimony affected the verdict

Rimes 33 FLW 2562, 5th DCA, error to deny challenge for cause who had a close friend who worked as a deputy sheriff and who stated he would tend to believe a police ofc over a lay witness-after brought back into the courtroom alone and asked leading questions was insufficient to erase reasonable doubt as to previous questions

McCain, 33 FLW 2569, 2nd DCA, Trafficking in narcotics, error to admit evidence that officer discovered baggie containing meth residue in def pocket after def arrested where, other than type of drug involved, there were no similarities between def's mere personal possession of baggie with meth residue and charges that def trafficked in large quantities of the substance and only relevance was to show def's propensity to commit drug crimes-not harmless where def stated he was in the car at the the time of the drug deal moved into the driver's seat to cause a quick departure and def unwittingly supplied vitamins to a friend that was used to "cut" and mix the drugs and was not aware of the deal done by a third party other than the def and a co-def.


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