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St. Thomas Law Review

First Page

309

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In many prosecutions in which weapons have been used to commit charged offenses, the State seeks to introduce into evidence weapons not actually used in the crime but purportedly related either to the charged crime or to the credibility of a witness. For years, courts have struggled with the issue of whether the State has established the relevancy of a weapon not used in the crime underlying the case at hand as well as whether the admission of a weapon under those circumstances would cause unfair prejudice to the defendant. Case law on the relevancy of weapon evidence presents a myriad of opinions with fine and detailed distinctions in reasoning and conclusions. Not too long ago, Florida's high court weighed in on the issue in a decision that set out the considerations that a trial court must make before admitting weapons not used in the charged crime. This article discusses that opinion and compares past and subsequent cases to its parameters.

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