The Safir Wire

Florida’s Attorney General is running DNA from 21,000 unsolved murders through forensic genetic genealogy with a private lab. The search finds a cousin, not a suspect, which is why the usual suppression motion fails. Where the defense actually is: the direct sample, the decades-old evidence, and the analysts who have...

Since iOS 26.4, a warrant and a passcode are often not enough to copy an iPhone; the phone wants a face or a finger. Florida’s Second and Fourth Districts disagree on whether a passcode can be compelled, no Florida court has decided a forced Face ID, and the federal circuits...

Florida breath machines repaired by an agency that admitted it could not repair them, 28 years on a medical examiner’s time of death, a confession from a sedated patient while the suspect was a police officer, and a DNA “match” that retested as inconclusive. What overturned really means, case by...

Seven Florida criminal laws take effect October 1, 2026: rental application fraud, no-contact order violations, Meg’s Law on nitrous oxide and xylazine, gang-related language online, the career offender license marking, a new exposure felony, and the plate frame rule. What each statute says, the penalty, and where the defense lives....

A former American Idol contestant was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life without parole, with no gun, no confession, and no witness. What the State had, how the messages and device data got into court, and how Florida would try the same case....

Two Tampa juries heard similar murder trials; one recommended death and one life. Florida uses six jurors for felonies, twelve for capital cases, a unanimous verdict, and eight of twelve for death, and the Supreme Court is now reviewing the six....