State v. Horwitz
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of first-degree murder with a firearm. During the trial, the State presented evidence of Defendant’s pre-arrest, pre-Miranda silence and argued that the jury should consider this silence as evidence of Defendant’s consciousness of guilt. The Court of Appeal reversed and remanded for a new trial, concluding that because Defendant did not testify at trial, the use of her pre-arrest, pre-Miranda silence was precluded as a matter of state constitutional and evidentiary law. The Supreme Court approved of the Court of Appeal’s decision, holding (1) use of a defendant’s silence as substantive evidence of guilt violates the Florida constitutional right against self-incrimination; and (2) as a matter of Florida evidentiary law, the State is precluded from using that silence to argue a defendant’s consciousness of guilt.
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