Is Dalia Dippolito Affected by Florida’s Slayer Statute?

What is Florida’s Slayer Statute? What does it have to do with Florida probate litigation? If I murder my spouse, can I still inherit from him or her? If I murder my girlfriend in Palm Beach, will I inherit her millions of dollars? What do Florida inheritance laws have to do with murder? If Dalia Dippolito had actually murdered her husband, would she have been able to inherit from her husband’s estate as she allegedly intended?

West Palm Beach probate lawyers know that Florida Statutes, section 732.802, also known as the Slayer Statute, bars a convicted murderer from benefitting under a will of the decedent that he or she murdered.This makes sense.Why should a person who kills another person be able to inherit from the victim’s estate?Wouldn’t that, perhaps,  tempt greedy beneficiaries to commit murder? On June 16,2017, the Sun Sentinel reported that Dalia Dippolito’s was found guilty of trying to have her husband murdered. According to the media, she hired an under cover cop to murder her husband. If she would have been convicted of murder she would not have been able to inherit from her husband’s estate, according to Florida’s Slayer Statute. In addition, if the person she hired would have actually killed her husband, she would not have been able to inherit from him. This is because Florida’s Slayer Statute says that if a person unlawfully kills someone, intentionally kills someone, or merely  participates in procuring the death of someone, that person is NOT entitled to any benefits under the Florida will or trust of the victim.

 

To read more about Dalia Dippolito’s retrial in West Palm Beach, click here.