Supreme Court of Florida

A trial court's failure to instruct the jury that the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant knew about the illicit nature of a controlled substance, constitutes reversible error, since knowledge of the illicit nature of a substance constitutes an element of the crime of possession.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/28/2002
• Published 02/28/2002

Judges

• QUINCE, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and Kathleen Stover, Assistant Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, FL, for Petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, James W. Rogers, Tallahassee Bureau Chief, Criminal Appeals, and Veronica S. McCrackin, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, for Respondent.