Derral Wayne Hodgkins, Appellant v. State of Florida, Appellee

Summary

The Court held that the State’s wholly circumstantial evidence did not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Hodgkins killed Teresa Lodge. Although the evidence showed that Hodgkins had contact with Lodge and that his DNA was found beneath her fingernails, it did not exclude the reasonable hypothesis that the DNA resulted from innocent contact before another person killed Lodge. The Court therefore reversed and vacated the conviction and death sentence and remanded for entry of a judgment of acquittal. Labarga, C.J., concurred separately regarding restraints during the penalty phase, while Canady, J., dissenting, would have upheld the conviction and sentence because the evidence supported reasonable inferences for the jury.