Opinion
No. 65-638.
April 26, 1966. Rehearing Denied May 17, 1966.
Appeal from the Criminal Court of Record for Dade County, Jack M. Turner, J.
J. Edward Worton, Miami, for appellants.
Earl Faircloth, Atty. Gen., Herbert P. Benn, First Asst. Atty. Gen., and George R. Georgieff, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Before HENDRY, C.J., and PEARSON and CARROLL, JJ.
On this appeal by the defendants following conviction for violation of the statute prohibiting a lottery (§ 849.09, Fla. Stat., F.S.A.) three points are presented.
First, it is contended that evidence obtained by federal officers under a search warrant, on the basis of which prosecution under federal law was instituted but later abandoned, was inadmissible in the state prosecution and that its use there violated their constitutional rights. We rejected that contention, with reference to such evidence, when it was raised in the recent case of Christian v. State, Fla.App. 1965, 176 So.2d 561, and on authority thereof we hold the appellants' first point is not meritorious.
Secondly, it is contended by appellants that the trial court erred in refusing to admit certain documents offered in evidence to show that the failure of the federal government to prosecute was for the announced reason that the evidence was considered insufficient upon which to obtain a conviction for violation of federal law. Such evidence was not material in the prosecution under state law, and the trial court's refusal to permit it to be shown was not error.
Appellants' third contention, that the evidence was insufficient, is not borne out by the record.
No reversible error having been made to appear, the judgment appealed from is affirmed.
Affirmed.