JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

CAN ERIC RIVERA BE SENTENCED TO LIFE?

On Tuesday, a Miami jury convicted Eric Rivera of second degree murder without a firearm and armed burglary with a battery in the death of football star Sean Taylor. 

A few hours later a bit of a contretemps broke out on Twitter where we averred that Rivera could not be sentenced to life in prison in that he was a juvenile at the time of the crime. On the other side of the argument was attorney David S Weinstein (@davidsweinstein) who also was giving that opinion to the media. 

We treated Mr. Weinstein, a former assistant state attorney and assistant united states attorney  (now in private practice) poorly in our tweets. For that we apologize. Mr. Weinstein justly has a sterling reputation for the work he did as a state and federal prosecutor. To that end, we invited Mr. Weinstein to provide us with his written argument in support of his position. We will provide that argument- unedited,  and our argument that Rivera cannot be sentenced to life, shortly.  Feel free to weigh in before then. 

See You In Court. 

19 comments:

Anonymous said...


Rumpole, you are the Richie Incognito of the Twitter-sphere. You should be ashamed of yourself and the only credit I can give to you is that you apologized.

You are a bully. You are so smart and you just have to let everyone know that you are smarter than everyone else in the room. You are obnoxious and pompous but you already knew that.

There are so many better ways to make your point without having to remind everyone that "you know it all".

And , finally, please update your title and add a "d" to the word Sentence. Can Eric Rivera Be Sentenced To Life? English must have been a class you skipped in school.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, because bullies always apologize and anyone who goes on a rant every once in a blue moon must be a bully. 958, you take yourself way too seriously.

BTDT

Anonymous said...

Happy Guy Fawkes day Rumpole. I've never understood why Guy Fawkes is such a hero to the "anonymous" and anarchist groups. What Guy Fawkes and his fellow gun powder plotters were trying to do was destroy the closest thing to democracy in 16th/17th century Europe--the English Parliment--so that the most reactionary body in that or any other time--the Roman Catholic Church--could reassert its hegemony over England. I guess those Guy Fawkes masks just look cool so why bother finding out what the guy really stood for.

Anonymous said...

Fuck that other guy - if Rump is right (he is), he has every right to call the dude out and rip him.

Rumpole said...

You really think that was anything other than a typo? You're even dumber than you sound, which coming from me is a big deal, because I do know it all.

Anonymous said...

My BF plays professional poker and I don't like to seem to be dumb. We were watching the world series of poker last night. What does short stacked mean?

Anonymous said...

3:17,

Short stacked is a construction term meaning the distance between the roof and the top of a chimney stack.

Anonymous said...

I read the feds stormed into Verde's chambers and strong-armed her into keeping a defendant in custody. Why have adversarial hearings in open court?

Anonymous said...

12:34 how do you react when people say bad things about you being Jewish

Anonymous said...

Rump -

Any thoughts on the Incognito-Martin bullying scandal?

It seems to me that NFL rookies undergo some institutional hazing, not unlike a college fraternity or military organization. These men are professional football players engaged in an aggressive and physical sport. A certain degree of mental and physical toughness is expected.

Did Incognito go too far? Was Martin not "tough enough" for the NFL?

Have we as a nation become such wimps that we can't tolerate a little bullying? It's everywhere these days. Bullying has been around since the dawn of time.

What say you?

Rumpole said...

I cannot post a comment alleging someone had illegal dealings with bondsman.

Anonymous said...

5:47--why don't you get your head out of the sand and take a look around. Not everyone in this town is Jewish or Catholic.

Anonymous said...

Rump,

Did Philbin order the code red?

Anonymous said...

If Verde met with the agents and did not invite the parties, she should be sanctioned by the JQC.

She must be really stupid to have done that.

MC Waste Services, Inc said...

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/boca-raton-police-arrest-broward-county-judge-on-d/nbjhB/?ecmp=pbp_social_201314095344 classic

Anonymous said...

Wow, I always thought "mental and physical toughness" was expected of those practicing law. There goes another misconception I can dispose of.. I thought I had done my homework after reading about.com's Top Ten Myths about Law You Learned from Hollywood.

-A Prospective Law Student

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...


THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

North of the Border ... JUDGE JAILED .....

According to the Palm Beach Post, Broward Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Imperato was arrested and charged with DUI while driving in Boca Raton. Here is the story:

The officer reported seeing Imperato driving erratically and almost hit another vehicle. A second officer came to the scene and asked Imperato if she knew why she was stopped. Imperato said she was weaving, the affidavit says.

The officer asked if Imperato had any medical issues, and she said no.

Imperato was asked to get out of the car, however she refused and said she was calling her attorney. The officer said Imperato was having trouble dialing numbers and also smelled alcohol coming from her. Her eyes appeared glassy and red, her speech slow and slurred and her face red and flush.

The officer again asked her to get out of the car but she continued to refuse. The officer then took Imperato’s cell phone, opened the car door and asked her to get out.

When she did get out of the car she used the door to push herself up, the affidavit says.

Imperato refused to take a breath test and refused to walk in front of the patrol car for a DUI test. She was then placed under arrest and her car was towed.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/boca-raton-police-arrest-broward-county-judge-on-d/nbjhB/

Cap Out ....


Anonymous said...

12:34 What's even funnier about the Guy Fawkes masks is that Time-Warner owns the licensing right to that image.
Those guys are rallying against the big corporations and are actually helping their bottom line by buying the masks. Time Warner makes a lot of money from them - they sell about 100,000 a year.

Anonymous said...

Captain: If Palm Beach article is correct, nice that she was released from the jail after spending only 5 1/2 hours there and without having to post a bond.