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113 Fla. 301

151 So 509

Woodward v. State

Supreme Court of Florida

Decided December 19, 1933

Supreme Court of Florida · decided 1933-12-19

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“in view of the uncertainties appearing in the evidence, and the strong doubt which the evidence raises as to the defendants' guilt... .”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 397 So. 2d 1120 - Tibbs v. State

Relies on Fuller v. State · Council v. State · Hammock v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1933-12-19

How this case has been cited

Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently August 2009

17 state decisions

5019331940195019601970198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Davis, C. J.

¶1 Plaintiff in error, George D. Woodward,, was convicted of the crime of incest with his twelve-year-old daughter, who is the plaintiff in error, Juanita Woodward. The brief of the Attorney General concedes the essential weakness of the State’s proof and a careful examination of the evidence by the members of this Court has convinced us that in view of the uncertainties appearing in the evidence, and the strong doubt which the evidence raises as to the defendants’ guilt of the revolting crime with which they were charged and found guilty, that the ends of justice will be subserved by the granting of a new trial. See Courson v. State, decided at the present term. Hammock v. State, 99 Fla. 1119, 128 Sou. Rep. 267; Fuller v. State, 92 Fla. 873, 110 Sou. Rep. 528; Council v. State, 111 Fla. 173, 149 Sou. Rep. 13; Calloway v. State, decided at the present term (opinion filed Nov. 10, 1933).

¶2 Reversed and a new trial awarded.

¶3 Whitfield, Ellis and Terrell, J. J., concur.

¶4 Buford, J., dissents.

¶5 Brown, J., absent on account of illness.

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