J.J.
v.
STATE

Fla. 3d DCA | 2018-12-19
No. 3D17-2492
260 So. 3d 549 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2018)

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

A defendant's confession alone cannot establish corpus delicti; the state must introduce substantial independent evidence tending to show the crime was committed.


Headnotes

[1] Corpus delicti must be established by substantial independent evidence beyond a defendant's confession or admission, though such evidence may be circumstantial in nature…

Previewing 1 of 1 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“A defendant's confession or statement may be considered in connection with the other evidence, but the corpus delicti cannot rest upon the confession or admission alone. Therefore, the state must introduce substantial independent evidence of corpus delicti that tends to show that the charged crimes were committed.”

Williams v. State, 689 So.2d 393, 396 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997)

Facts & Procedural History

The defendant was convicted of a charged crime based in part on the defendant's confession or statement.…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court

PER CURIAM.

*550Affirmed. See Williams v. State, 689 So. 2d 393, 396 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997) ("A defendant's confession or statement may be considered in connection with the other evidence, but the corpus delicti cannot rest upon the confession or admission alone. Therefore, the state must introduce substantial independent evidence of corpus delicti that tends to show that the charged crimes were committed.") (citations and quotations omitted); Burks v. State, 613 So. 2d 441, 443 (Fla. 1993) ("[T]he state has the burden of proving by substantial evidence that a crime was committed, and ... such proof may be in the form of circumstantial evidence.") (quoting State v. Allen, 335 So. 2d 823, 824 (Fla. 1976) ); Thomas v. State, 531 So. 2d 708, 711 (Fla. 1988) ("Corpus delicti need not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, but merely by evidence tending to show a crime has been committed.").


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw