Dean Kenneth Rockmore v. State of Florida

Dean Kenneth Rockmore is serving a sentence of life imprisonment after he was convicted of robbery with a firearm for stealing a package of T-shirts and a package of socks from Walmart, following a trial during which the jury received a legally inaccurate jury instruction on his defense of abandonment. I concur in Chief Justice Polston’s dissenting-in-part opinion that explains why Rockmore is entitled to a new trial based on the legally inaccurate special jury instruction given by the trial court in this case, but write separately to explain why I would go one step further and make clear…