The Florida Supreme Court overturned Blaine Ross’ murder conviction and remanded it back to the lower court for a new trial (
Ross v. Florida). Mr. Ross was sentenced to death after a jury convicted him of Florida first-degree murder of his parents. Among the evidence presented at trial, Florida prosecutors submitted Mr. Ross’ confession to the jury, which Manatee County detectives obtained through a police interrogation. Detectives vigorously questioned Mr. Ross and did not read Mr. Ross his Miranda rights until later in the interrogation. This Florida Police Department’s actions arose to improper police conduct, which resulted in an involuntary confession. As such, the confession should not have been admitted in Mr. Ross’ Florida Murder Trial.
Mr. Ross will stand trail again, but the trial court judge will not be admitting the confession into evidence. Without the confession, the State of Florida will need to rely on other evidence to obtain a Florida murder conviction. This could be the difference between a guilty and not guilty verdict. Therefore, it is important for a Florida Criminal Lawyer to make sure that police gave proper Miranda warnings in a criminal case involving a confession.
To read more about Blaine Ross, visit Bradenton.com.