Bush v. State
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The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's convictions for first-degree murder and burglary of a dwelling with an assault and while armed with a firearm and Defendant's sentence of death, holding that this Court now joins federal courts and the majority of state courts in abandoning a special appellate standard to evaluate evidence on appeal in a wholly circumstantial case rather than in a case with some direct evidence.
Defendant's convictions in this case were wholly based upon circumstantial evidence. The Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentence after discontinuing the use of the special standard of review previously applied to wholly circumstantial cases, holding (1) the standard of review now to be used in all cases where the sufficiency of the evidence is analyzed is whether the State presented competent, substantial evidence to support the verdict; (2) in this case, a rational trier of fact could have found the existence of the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt; and (3) Defendant was not entitled to reversal of his convictions on any of his remaining allegations of error.
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