Reader’s guide · Florida
Dalia Dippolito: publicity, jury selection and the 2014 appeal
A guide to the reversal of Dippolito’s first conviction, focused on jury selection and the difference between a new trial and an acquittal.
- Record
- Dippolito v. State, No. 4D11-2628
- Issued by
- Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal
- Date
- July 30, 2014
- Document
- Court opinion
Reading the record
Dalia Dippolito’s first conviction was reversed because of problems in jury selection. The Fourth District agreed that prospective jurors should have been questioned individually about publicity, and that the panel had heard a prejudicial allegation that was not admissible at trial.
The court ordered a new trial while rejecting the remaining appellate issues without extended discussion. A reversal on this ground addresses how the first trial was conducted. It is not an acquittal and does not determine the result of the later retrial.
As you read, separate the evidence used at trial from information prospective jurors brought into the courtroom. The opinion’s focus is the process for identifying and addressing that outside influence.
Questions to take to the source
- Why did individual questioning matter in a widely publicized case?
- What information reached the whole jury panel?
- What did the new-trial order change, and what did it leave undecided?
Follow the evidence
Open the source record
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- Dippolito v. State — 2014 opinion
Court opinion reproduced in Justia’s case-law archive.
Companion reading for True Crime Florida: The Palm Beach Files. This guide addresses the dated records above; later proceedings may have their own decisions.