BAD MOON RISING

 The shocking decision in Caribo v. State, 4D2023-2962, courtesy of your friends on the 4th DCA ("We're gonna getchya") allows for the introduction of a defendant's prior convictions as impeachment when a defense attorney solicits from a police officer during cross examination a statement her client made.   Ay Caramba!  

Danger Will Robinson! This is not good! 

“When a hearsay statement has been admitted in evidence, credibility of the declarant may be attacked and, if attacked, may be supported by any evidence that would be admissible for those purposes if the declarant had testified as a witness.” § 90.806(1), Fla. Stat. (2023). “A party may attack the credibility of any witness, including an accused, by evidence that the witness has been convicted of a crime if the crime was punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of 1 year under the law under which 5 the witness was convicted, or if the crime involved dishonesty or a false statement regardless of the punishment[.]” § 90.610(1), Fla. Stat. (2023).

This is the statement that came out on cross by the defendant's attorney: 

 

Q: Okay. So after the interview, you took a picture of the shoe, was there any other things that you did with Mr. Caribo regarding this case?

A: I asked him if he—I believe I asked him if he had any of the jewelry concealed on him, at the time. Other than that, I don’t believe I did anything else, just speaking to him.

Q: Okay. And did Mr. Caribo act, like, surprised or did he say he had jewelry?

A: He said he didn’t have any jewelry on him.

The learned judges (note the sarcasm) found this to be a hearsay statement of the defendant which, naturally, allowed the prosecution to impeach the defendant who was presumably sitting quietly at counsel table quietly working on Wordle, with 23 felony and 5 misdemeanor convictions, 

So now cross-examiner beware! One wrong question, and all your client's priors come flooding in. 

(H/T Judge De La O's case law email update) 

Opinion_2023-2962 by Anonymous PbHV4H

And finally, for some fun heading into the NFL Playoffs weekend, a -4 degree temp meme that some people see something else in 😂