Florida Mugshots in Context
A booking photo can travel far beyond the county where it was taken. A famous image often spreads through news copies. The official version stays with the sheriff or corrections office that made it. Florida Memory holds only selected images, not a complete county booking-photo set. The photo shows an arrest. The court file shows what happened after. Acquittal means a jury found the defendant not guilty. A plea settles the matter through an admission, often as part of an agreement. A conviction can come from a trial or a plea. An appeal may change part of that result. The cases below keep those stages distinct.
For a specific case, start with the booking agency or the county court. The record locations listed here are the strongest leads. They do not promise that every image is online or cleared for reuse.
Florida Statutes §901.43 governs commercial publication of booking photographs and spells out removal practices. The Florida Senate’s §901.43 text carries the current scope and request language.
To trace a particular case, use the agency and court records named here. They show what was filed and how the case ended.
Notable Florida Arrest Records
The table splits arrest year, outcome, and custodian into separate columns. Verify likely file origins with the county office itself. News coverage is not the official booking record.
| Case and arrest year | Agency or place | Documented disposition | Original record route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theodore “Ted” Bundy, 1978 | Pensacola Police after a traffic stop | Florida murder convictions resulted in death sentences; he was executed in 1989. The FBI history identifies the Pensacola apprehension and prosecution history. | Florida Memory’s July 1978 suspect photograph item; the underlying arrest and court files are separate. |
| Aileen Wuornos, 1991 | Florida Highway Patrol and Volusia-area custody | She received a death sentence and was executed on October 9, 2002, per the Florida Commission on Capital Cases. | Florida capital-case and law-enforcement records tied to multiple prosecutions; no single original booking-photo copy is identified here. |
| William Kennedy Smith, 1991 | Palm Beach authorities | A Palm Beach County jury acquitted him in December 1991. A verdict report records that outcome. | Palm Beach police or county-jail booking file and Palm Beach County Clerk criminal docket; the contemporaneous arrest report describes the booking. |
| Casey Anthony, 2008 | Orange County Sheriff’s Office | Acquitted of capital murder in 2011, as summarized in a federal court filing; convicted on four false-information misdemeanor counts. In 2013, an appellate court reversed two of those four counts. See the Fifth District opinion. | Orange County Corrections or Sheriff booking record and the Ninth Judicial Circuit or Orange County Clerk criminal case. |
| George Zimmerman, 2012 | Seminole County Sheriff | A jury found him not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter in 2013; see the verdict report and courtroom record. | Seminole County Sheriff booking record and the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit or Seminole County Clerk case. |
| John Goodman, 2010 | Palm Beach County | Convicted of DUI manslaughter with failure to render aid and sentenced to 16 years. The Fourth District opinion describes the conviction and sentence. | Palm Beach County Sheriff booking records and Palm Beach County criminal docket. |
| Justin Bieber, 2014 | Miami Beach Police; Miami-Dade booking | He pleaded guilty to careless driving and resisting arrest; the DUI-related charge was resolved through the plea agreement, as summarized by the plea report. | Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation booking file and Eleventh Judicial Circuit or Miami-Dade Clerk case. |
| Tiger Woods, 2017 | Jupiter; Palm Beach County booking | He pleaded guilty to reckless driving in October 2017; the resolution avoided jail and involved diversion or probation. The arrest and plea report describes the result. | Palm Beach County Sheriff booking record and Palm Beach County Clerk criminal case. |
Start with the named county for the original local record. State or national fame does not move the file. A current roster may return nothing for an old arrest. Even then, the county often keeps a request path. A docket entry may survive there as well.
Request a Florida Booking Record
A county roster may drop an older arrest. Go to the office that made or holds the booking record. In Florida that could be a sheriff, a jail, or a municipal police agency. Narrow requests work best. A vague ask gives staff nothing to search. Name the county, the date, or the file.
- Name the likely custodian and the record type, such as a booking photograph or booking sheet.
- Give the full name used at booking, county, approximate date, and booking or case number if known.
- Ask for an electronic copy if available, and allow for lawful redactions in the response.
- Use the county clerk’s case record to check the charges filed and the final disposition.
A roster, booking sheet, photograph, and court docket are related but separate records. If the agency no longer holds the photo, ask about jail dockets or release lists. Then search the State Archives catalog. A state record series may have been transferred there.
Anthony’s Trial and Appeal Record
Casey Anthony was arrested in Orange County in 2008. The arrest came during the investigation involving her daughter. In July 2011 the jury acquitted her of the capital murder charges. It convicted her on four misdemeanor counts of giving false information to law enforcement. In 2013 Florida's Fifth District Court of Appeal reversed two of those four convictions. It remanded for those counts to be vacated. The capital-murder acquittal stood. For the booking photo, Orange County Sheriff or Corrections records are the route. The county trial docket and the state appellate opinion show the separate outcomes.
Acquittals in Two Counties
William Kennedy Smith's 1991 Palm Beach County case ended in acquittal. The surrender and booking report is one record. The verdict is another. Palm Beach police or county-jail files hold the booking side. The Palm Beach County Clerk docket holds the case result.
George Zimmerman was booked in Seminole County in 2012. In 2013 he was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter. The Sheriff file is the photo route. The Eighteenth Judicial Circuit or Seminole County Clerk docket holds the case filings. Trial materials identify case 2012-CF-1083A. Readers should confirm it in the clerk's own index.
Florida Pleas and Convictions
Justin Bieber's 2014 Miami Beach arrest ended in guilty pleas to careless driving and resisting arrest. The DUI-related charge was resolved through the agreement rather than a DUI conviction. Miami-Dade Corrections holds the booking record. The Eleventh Judicial Circuit or county clerk holds the case.
John Goodman was convicted in Palm Beach County of DUI manslaughter with failure to render aid. He received a 16-year sentence. The Fourth District opinion describes the result, and the county criminal docket is the separate local source.
Tiger Woods was arrested in Jupiter in 2017. That October he pleaded guilty to reckless driving. His Palm Beach County Sheriff booking file documents the arrest. The county clerk case records the plea.
Capital Cases and Archives
Ted Bundy's Florida arrest came in 1978, when Pensacola police took him into custody. Murder convictions there carried death sentences. He was executed in 1989. Florida Memory holds a suspect photograph dated July 1978. The FBI history covers the chase and prosecution. Keep in mind the archive image is a dated artifact, not a current roster entry.
Aileen Wuornos was arrested in Florida in 1991, and her record spans multiple prosecutions. Her death sentence is documented by the Florida Commission on Capital Cases. She was executed on October 9, 2002. For files like these, go to the original sources. The capital-case record plus law-enforcement and court papers are the best. The Florida mugshot archives page explains how to request an older series. Keep its title, date, and rights note with any citation.
Find the Florida Court Record
Florida has no single public trial-court criminal docket. Start local instead. Open the Florida County Directory, find the county where the arrest happened, and search that clerk by name and approximate case year.
Split the work between two offices. The arresting agency or sheriff holds the booking record. The clerk holds the court case and its final disposition. Appeals run through a separate system. Florida's Appellate Case Information System, known as ACIS, covers Supreme Court and appellate material but not trial dockets. The ACIS public-search landing page shows the statewide appellate path; when a case was appealed, take its caption and county back to the trial docket.
Let the appellate opinion tell you what the higher court decided. The county clerk keeps the original trial file.
Florida Clerk Search Limits
The statewide Clerks of Court system, CCIS, is built for official use rather than as a public stand-in for county clerk portals. The CCIS notice and access page spells out that boundary.
Skip CCIS as an open statewide index. For public trial records, use the clerk's public county search or contact the clerk's office directly.
Request Florida Booking Photos
Florida's public-records law generally opens agency-held records to inspection and copying, subject to exemptions and redactions. Section 119.07 spells out how. Name the record and its custodian. A court portal will not supply a sheriff's booking photo. The §119.07 inspection and copy page shows the rule for agency-held records.
The law opens a door to an existing agency record. It does not turn a private copy into an official one. Nor does it promise a file stays in agency custody.
If the online trail runs cold, go straight to the booking agency with a narrow request. Search the county court records separately, too. Ask the clerk to confirm the case number, the charges filed, and the final disposition. Any appeal can be tracked through ACIS. Read the full opinion there rather than a short summary, and the record trail stays intact from start to finish.