Opinion ID: 6321839
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Roberts’s Recantation

Text: Sheppard’s first newly discovered evidence claim centers on an affidavit in which Sheppard’s former cellmate, Michael Roberts, recanted his trial testimony regarding Sheppard’s inculpatory statements to Roberts. At the evidentiary hearing, the circuit court sustained the State’s hearsay objection and properly allowed a proffer of the affidavit and testimony from members of the defense - 37 - team who had witnessed the recantation. The State was also allowed to proffer rebuttal testimony—witnesses who testified that Roberts had affirmed his trial testimony after the recantation and had explained that he only recanted to get Sheppard’s postconviction counsel to leave him alone. Roberts died prior to the evidentiary hearing and Sheppard argues on appeal, as he did below, that the recantation evidence should have been admitted under the hearsay exception for statements against interest found in section 90.804(2)(c), Florida Statutes (2020). This statute states: