IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
FIRST DISTRICT, STATE OF FLORIDA
BRANDON B. WILSON, NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO
FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND
Appellant, DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED
v. CASE NO. 1D13-5025
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
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Opinion filed May 12, 2015.
An appeal from the Circuit Court for Alachua County.
Stanley H. Griffis, III, Judge.
Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and David A. Davis, Assistant Public
Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Lauren Brudnicki, Assistant Attorney
General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.
PER CURIAM.
AFFIRMED.
THOMAS and ROWE, JJ., CONCUR; MAKAR, J., SPECIALLY CONCURS.
MAKAR, J., specially concurring.
Appellant, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for first-degree
murder based on eyewitness identification of him as the shooter, asks this Court to
certify a question of great public importance based on the trial court’s exclusion of
his proposed expert on the fallibility of eyewitness identification. His request is
based on Justice Pariente’s concurring opinion in Peterson v. State,
154 So. 3d 275
(Fla. 2014), which suggests that such proposed expert testimony should be
generally admissible to assist the jury in determining the reliability of eyewitness
identifications, especially in cases resting substantially or entirely on eyewitness
testimony in light of scientific research showing the prevalence of wrongful
convictions based on erroneous eyewitness testimony. Because Appellant’s
conviction was based on multiple eyewitness who identified him specifically,
however, there was no substantial likelihood of misidentification on this record;
the trial court did not abuse its discretion.
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