Florida Supreme Court Stands Firm on Spousal Privilege

Prosecutors and six Tampa-area juries are pretty clear that Oscar Ray Bolin is a vicious murderer, but on Thursday, the state Supreme Court held, once again, that damaging testimony from his ex-wife ought not to have been used against him, that a new trial must be conducted, and that the families of the 1986 victims have to go through it all over again. The Court said it wasn’t clear that he had waived his privilege not to have his wife’s words used against him. However, here’s what Bolin did: He left a 6-page suicide letter in his cell (suicide attempt failed) containing this sentence: “If there’s anything that you really want to know about, then you’ll haft [sic] to ask Cheryl Jo [the ex-wife], because she knew just about everything that I was ever a part of [and] she knew about all 3 of these homicide [sic] which I’m charged with.” (Cheryl Jo has since died.) That was regarded as insufficient for a waiver. Bolin has been convicted 3 times for each of 2 of the murders, i.e., he has won all 4 of his appeals to the Supreme Court.