Top Florida court OKs new murder trial for lawyer's ex-wife
A Florida woman convicted of first-degree murder in the 2011 slaying of her attorney ex-husband at the luxury home they shared will get a new trial.
That’s because prosecutors violated both state constitutional and evidentiary law by encouraging the jury to consider her silence as a sign of consciousness of guilt, the state’s top court has ruled.
Donna Horwitz said nothing to investigators even before she was advised of her Miranda rights, as well as afterward. And because she also opted not to testify at trial that silence could not be used against her, the Florida Supreme Court said in its Thursday opinion (PDF).
Agreeing with an intermediate appeals court that the trial court erred in allowing testimony about a complete lack of response by Horwitz to the questions of those who arrived after emergency calls, the state’s top court said Florida’s constitution, which affords broader protection than the U.S. Constitution in this regard, bans such violations of the right against self-incrimination.
However, the evidence was additionally impermissible because of a lack of relevance under state evidentiary rules, the court said in its opinion. Since Donna Horwitz said nothing, the meaning of her silence was unclear. And, since police and other official responders are likely to be called to testify about a defendant’s silence, such testimony is likely to be particularly prejudicial, the court explained.
“This combination of a lack of probative value and the danger of unfair prejudice is particularly evident when a defendant does not testify at trial and does not provide an explanation for the silence so that the jury is left to speculate,” it wrote.
Lawyer and real estate developer Lanny Horwitz was 66 when he was fatally shot multiple times in his home in a waterfront community in Jupiter.
Donna Horwitz, now 69, was convicted in 2013 by a Palm Beach County jury and has been serving a life sentence, the Palm Beach Post reports.
The couple had been twice married and twice divorced over a period of some 30 years.
An earlier South Florida Sun Sentinel story discusses the appellate court ruling in Donna Horwitz’ favor.
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