As Davids read it, that ruling applied precisely to the search at the furniture store.  The issue seemed even more clearly in Zeigler's favor: no emergency existed once Ficke and Thompson and the others had found only dead bodies.  The evidence in plain sight included the weapons and the holster and the bodies themselves.  But the insurance policies, the storeroom bag, and the second .22 would all be inadmissible.

Further, Judge Paul had specifically cited the now-invalid crime scene exception: the police, he said, "were conducting a crime scene investigation which, due to its complexity, continued for more than a week."

Davids argued his case before the Florida supreme court on January 9, 1981.

The decision came down six months later; the court affirmed Zeigler's conviction and sentence and denied his motion for a retrial. It addressed these issues, among others:

Ÿ       Judge Paul's refusal to grant continuance fell within the "sound discretion" of a trial judge.

Ÿ       The "grove bullet" was admissible even though it could not be positively identified as from the Securities gun, and there was no way to know when it had been fired.

Ÿ       The Brevital Sodium test and Dr. Zimmer's psychiatric examination were not admissible.

Ÿ       The evidence from the Dunaway car was admissible, since Thompson and Yawn had entered the home in the belief that an emergency existed.

Ÿ       Frank Smith's hearsay testimony, about his telephone conversation with the man whom Edward Williams described as Zeigler, was not improper.

Ÿ       Herbert MacDonell's footprint testimony may have been a breach of discovery, but Judge Paul had remedied it when he allowed Hadley and Davids to examine the evidence and to interview MacDonell.  "Actually, there is very little contradiction between the testimony of [Thomas] Delaney and the testimony of McDonnell [sic]," said the opinion, by Chief Justice James C. Adkins.

Ÿ       Judge Paul was justified in refusing to allow Hadley to question jurors about Irma Brickle's charges of misconduct.

Ÿ       The judge had properly overruled the jury's advisory sentence.

Ÿ       Most dismaying for Davids, the court ruled that Mincey did not apply to the warrantless search of the store, since Zeigler had invited the police when he asked Don Ficke for help.

Until 1978, Davids would have taken the search-and-seizure appeals to the federal system, beginning with the U.S. district court in Jacksonville, state courts have generally been less liberal than federal courts in upholding constitutional safeguards.