RANDY THOMAS
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA
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While trial judges must primarily rely on Florida's Standard Jury Instructions, they may use properly-crafted hypotheticals to explain the law, provided care is taken to ensure the magnitude of judicial position does not improperly influence jurors' interpretation of such explanations.
[1] A trial judge may deviate from Florida's Standard Jury Instructions by using hypothetical examples to explain the law to jurors, provided the judge exercises due care to…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“while a trial judge is tasked with explaining to jurors the law they are to apply, the trial judge should rely upon, and seldom stray from, Florida's Standard Jury Instructions... Trial judges must be ever mindful 'that the high position which a judge holds in the scheme of the trial magnifies, in the minds of the jurors, the meaning of comments by the judge, to which he himself may not attach particular importance.'”
Warren v. State, 307 So. 3d 871, 872 (Fla. 3d DCA 2020)
Randy Thomas appealed his conviction in Miami-Dade County, challenging the jury instructions provided by the trial judge.…
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PER CURIAM.
Affirmed. Warren v. State, 307 So. 3d 871, 872 (Fla. 3d DCA 2020) (“[W]hile a trial judge is tasked with explaining to jurors the law they are to apply, the trial judge should rely upon, and seldom stray from, Florida's Standard Jury Instructions. This should not be interpreted as prohibiting a trial judge from using a hypothetical that properly explains the law, but due care must be taken in the process. . . . Trial judges must be ever mindful ‘that the high position which a judge holds in the scheme of the trial magnifies, in the minds of the jurors, the meaning of comments by the judge, to which he himself may not attach particular importance.’”) (quoting Kellum v. State, 104 So. 2d 99, 104 (Fla. 3d DCA 1958)).
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Kellum v. State, 104 So. 2d 99 (Fla. 3d DCA 1958)
- Warren v. State, 307 So. 3d 871 (Fla. 3d DCA 2020)