The Constitution provides that no person can be compelled to make any incriminating statements against him/herself. This means that when the police believe a person was involved in a crime and want to ask him/her questions about it, that person has a right to refuse to talk to the police. …
In Florida, most people know that their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent means that the state cannot normally use a person’s silence in response to police questioning against them in court. However, does this same principle extend to a refusal to provide DNA? In a recent murder case south…
States have different laws dealing with whether you can record a person’s oral communications and disclose it to the police or use it as evidence in court. Some states allow such a recording as long as just one party to the discussion agrees, even if the consenting party is also…
With cell phones that have the capability to record audio and video, people record other people’s communications all of the time. However, that may not be legal in Florida. There is a statute that addresses this issue, but its interpretation is not clear. The Florida statute basically says it is…
Most people in Florida enjoy the Constitutional protections that prevent the police from searching a person’s home, vehicle or other belongings without probable cause, a search warrant and/or consent. In other words, police cannot just go and enter a person’s home or search something that belongs to a person without…
Most people are aware that the United States Constitution affords people the right to remain silent. This means that a person does not have to give any statement to police that might be incriminating, and a defendant cannot be compelled to testify at his/her own trial. If a person chooses…
When a defendant in Florida is arrested and charged with a crime and then decides to enter a guilty or no contest plea, or has a trial and is found guilty, he/she will be sentenced by the judge. The judge will likely have a few options when sentencing the defendant.…
In Florida, defendants in criminal cases have certain Constitutional rights that stay with them from the time they are arrested until their trial, if they choose to have one. One of those rights is the right to be considered innocent unless and until the state proves the defendant’s guilt beyond…
In some of the bigger trafficking in drugs and other drug cases, one major component of the state’s case may be phone calls of the defendant that were intercepted and recorded. These phone calls intercepted without the defendant’s knowledge are often critical pieces of evidence as they may involve the…
In Florida, there are certain privileges a defendant has in a criminal case that preclude the prosecution from presenting evidence to the jury. For example, private conversations between a defendant and his/her attorney, doctor, psychologist or psychiatrist and other specified individuals are privileged and cannot be discovered or admitted into…