Rafael Alexander Gutierrez, Petitioner v. State of Florida, Respondent

Summary

The court held that a jury instruction stating that a sexual-battery victim's testimony need not be corroborated is improper because it singles out the victim's testimony and risks causing the jury to apply different standards of credibility and weight. The court further held that the error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the evidence permitted competing interpretations of the sexual encounter and the instruction may have caused the jury to give the victim's testimony undue weight. The court quashed the district court's decision and remanded for a new trial. Canady, J., dissenting, would have dismissed review for lack of conflict and, alternatively, upheld the instruction as within the trial court's discretion; Polston, J., joined that dissent.