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213 So. 2d 738

Carpenter v. State

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Decided September 11, 1968

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1968-09-11

Relies on 211 So. 2d 79 - Urquhart v. State · Young v. State · 210 So. 2d 238 - Gamble v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1968-09-11

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently July 1990

10 state decisions

701968197019801990decided

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.

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MANN, Judge.

¶1Prior to this court’s rulings in Gamble v. State, 210 So.2d 238 (1968); and Urquhart v. State, 211 So.2d 79 (1968) the court below declined to follow the Fourth District Court of Appeal’s decision in Young v. State, 203 So.2d 650 (1967). Our adoption of the Youngruling makes necessary a new trial for Carpenter without the seriously objectionable charge which in effect requires the defendant to testify against himself to avoid the jury’s inference of larceny from the unexplained possession of recently stolen property This case is not distinguishable, as the state suggests, because the defendant did answer some questions put to him by the arresting officers. The jury may draw inferences from possession as it may from other circumstantial evidence, but not from unexplained possession.

¶2The record is otherwise free from error.

¶3Reversed and remanded for a new trial.

LILES, C. J., and HOBSON, J., concur.
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