Sunday, October 07, 2007

HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY



Columbus discovering America? Or an artist's rendition of a sojourner to the REGJB espying a parking spot?


Christopher Columbus has his own day.

Rumor has it that the State Attorneys Office celebrates Columbus day by inviting all their employees in for eight hours of reflection on the importance of this day.


We'll Take Your Case- Hope you Don't Die First:

The NY Times REPORTS TODAY on what has been an open secret among those who labor against the death penalty in this country: That while it takes Four Supreme Court Justices to grant a writ to review a case, it takes Five Justices to vote for a stay of execution.

Thus, the situation occurs where the Supreme Court votes to hear an appeal from a death row inmate, while the State still makes all due preparations to kill the inmate before the appeal can be heard.

Chief Justice John Roberts was asked about this situation at his confirmation hearing by Senator Leahy:

Do you feel, as chief, you should do the courtesy,” Senator Patrick J. Leahy,
Democrat of Vermont, asked, “and kick in the fifth one?”

“I don’t want to commit to pursue a particular practice,” Judge Roberts said. “But it obviously makes great sense... You don’t want to moot the case by not staying the sentence,” he added.

It may have made "great sense" to man trying to get 51 votes to become the nation's next chief justice, but it doesn't make sense to this particular chief justice now that he has the job.

Luther J Williams was executed by Alabama (motto: "get ready to die y'all" ) on August 23 of this year. Previously, four justices had voted to hear his appeal challenging the use of lethal injections. Upon his execution the clerk of the US Supreme Court added this entry to the docket for Mr. Williams "The Petition is dismissed as moot." (not withstanding the chief justice's testimony to the senate that "you don't want to moot the case by not staying the sentence")

Here was the reaction of Mr. William's lawyer:

“They knew they were going to consider the issue and let a man die,” Joel L. Sogol, who represented Mr. Williams, said of the justices. “May he haunt their nights for the rest of their lives.”

There is some positive news here: At least one politician- The Governor of Virginia -has more common sense in his pinkie than five (can you guess the five?) Supreme Court Justices:

From the NY Times Article:

Last Monday, Justice John Paul Stevens issued an unusual statement in the case of Christopher S. Emmett. The court had been set to consider Mr. Emmett’s appeal on Sept. 24 after returning from its summer break. “Nevertheless,” Justice Stevens wrote, “Virginia set an execution date of June 13.”

Four justices voted in favor of a last-minute stay of execution,

but that was not enough. Two hours before Mr. Emmett was to die, Virginia’s governor, Tim Kaine, a Democrat, stepped in to do what the court would not.
“Basic fairness demands that condemned inmates be allowed the opportunity to complete legal appeals prior to execution,” Mr. Kaine said in a statement. “The irreversibility of an execution and the fact that four justices of the court believe a stay is needed to consider the appeal warrant my intervention in this case.”


Finally, a man with courage and common sense steps forward!!! Can you imagine what Bush and his cohorts would have said about Saddam Hussein- when he was still in power, and they were spoiling for a reason to go to war- if it was reported that Hussein thwarted the legal process by executing prisoners before their appeals were heard?

This is the United States of America, and today we proudly celebrate the man who discovered our country. And we execute our citizens before the courts can dispose of all issues in their case. For shame.

See You In Court Tomorrow.




39 comments:

  1. "Kill them all....Let God sort them out"

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  2. Rumpole! Inquiring 3Ls want to know. Which is the best SAO office for a graduating law student to start their career in prosecution: Palm Beach, Broward, or Miami? What advice can your dear, but snarky readers give?

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  3. African traders had been to Mexico
    long before Columbus - look at the
    statutes of gigantic African heads found in the eastern Mexican region near Veracruz and presently
    in the museum in Mexico City. Also
    look at the book They Came Before
    Columbus by Professor Ivan Van
    Sertima.

    Scott Africa

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  4. Ah dear young reader!!
    All bright eyed and hopped up on double Starbucks Caffe Lattes!
    Ready for action, chomping at the bit as it were.

    I would avoid Broward like the plague. I don't know enough about West Palm- too far to drive these days.

    Which brings us to the good old Miami SAO. It has quite a tradition, and there are some stellar trial lawyers there. Certainly Miami is where the action is. I have some reservations about some of their current policies, but over all I think many well trained lawyers come out of the Miami SAO and PD's office.

    Best of luck, and if you do get hired, you will start in County Court. Which means I would personally appreciate it if you could show some common sense and not walk in front of my car dragging boxes of cases to court while I'm trying to park in the attorney's parking lot. I have been gripping about this for ages and none of these damn prosecutors have the common sense not to walk in the middle of the lot while I'm trying to get by them, park, and deal with the crowds and the genuis security screeners that are all personally conspiring to ruin my day.

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  5. Rump, why do you again (second time) mention you park in the attorneys parking lot, now the Rump obsessors will be "just happening to be talking to the security guard" tomorrow, while taking down tag #'s. Some will be in black robes.

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  6. I go to the REGJB just about every day of my working life. I have been doing that since 19..well never mind since when. And you don't think I have a parking sticker? You think I fight with the hoi poloi for parking spots and wait in interminable lines with Ms. Nesmith? Think again buddy boy.

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  7. It doesn't matter who "discovered" the "New World". It really doesn't.


    Timothy World

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  8. To 3L: Miami has great training and lots of superb prosecutors from whom to learn. If your heart is so inclined, it is a wonderful place to start -- if you can forget all of the paperwork and rigamarole once you get there.

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  9. Excuse me Mr. President. I SAID EXCUSE ME MR. PRESIDENT, JUST A FEW QUESTIONS SIR!!!

    Rumpole I am a publisher of a daily paper and I have just a few questions:

    1. Age ( or withion 10 years of real age).

    2. How long have you been in Miami (Born, Moved here 5, 10 20 yrs ago).

    3. How many years have you been a licensed attorney in Florida? Appox year is fine.

    4. Do you have bar license in other States. If yes have you ever practiced law in those States?

    5. Do you speak any other languages?

    6. What is your favorite dessert?

    7. Do you live in the Gables or Miami Beach or neither? Please pick one.

    8. Do you have Children? If the answer is Yes how many appox number is fine.

    9. Have you ever been arrested? is Yes have you ever been convicted of a crime?

    10. Have you even been sued? If the answer is Yes did you lose?

    11. Have you ever filed a notice of appeal? If Yes did you ever get a reversal of a lower court ruling?

    12. Do you have any pets? If yes what kind of pet?

    13. Do you have a pool?

    14. Do you own, rent or lease? If you own do you own House or Condo?

    15. Have you ever been in a car accident? If yes was it your fault?

    16. Will you ever tell your identity? If Yes when?

    17. What most surprises you about the popularity of your blog?

    18. You said once that someone offered you money for the blog. Is this true? If yes what was the offer?

    19. Will you sell the blog for a certain dollar amount?

    20. Why do you issist on moderation when your blog's popularity was built on the spontaneous comments of your supporters?

    21. Will you ever stop moderation?

    22. Will you allow the trial master back?

    23. Did you shoot J.R.?

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  10. That is the point no one discovered anything. It was there and certain people knew about it and certain others didn't.

    Scott Africa

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  11. I'm busy. I'll answer (some) of these dopy questions when I feel like it. So don't try to post them again, because I won't put them up. You think all this space is for free?

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  12. Here's an idea: Get your colleagues to stop filing so many bogus appeals (ie. it seems like an appeal is filed in EVERY case where someone goes to prison, let alone gets the death penalty). Then the courts will have time to hear cases timely and jerks like this one will get the last ditch bogus arguments in before they're executed.

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  13. Dade, Broward or Palm Beach SAO? That is a no-brainer. Stay in Miami-Dade.

    More cases, more trials, more attorneys, more judges, more defense attorneys, more specialized units, more everything. Assuming you stay only four years or so, you'll be in the felony division within 18 months, which leaves plenty of time to get to the serious cases.

    Granted I was an ASA from 1998 to 2002 when there was less office bullcrap and prosecutors were able to use their discretion.

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  14. Actually, Timothy World and Scott Africa, the European Vikings arrived well in advance of Columbus or any Africans.

    It just depends on how far baqck you wanna take it.

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  15. BREAKING NEWS!
    Out of Tallahassee:

    Sources have informed me that our Candidate for Clerk of Court has filed a written request with the director of the Department of State, Division of Elections. It appears that he may be requesting a legal opinion or has filed a complaint? Details are sketchy.

    Current 2007 legal opinions:

    http://election.dos.state.fl.us/opinions/yearIndex/de2007index.shtml

    Captain you are good at getting inside details. Check the link every few hours for any Breaking News. Meanwhile someone get the scoop.

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  16. 3:13, find something to do

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  17. 4:14pm Thank you

    Fake McGillis

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  18. Since when is nutso breaking news?

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  19. the full and frightening unbridled truth about guy is not coming to light on the game politics web site, it is being covered daily at www.nationalgaynews.com, and it is not pretty...the things that jack has done disgrace not only him but if i were norm kent, steve chaykin, judge jordan, barry richard or any one of the people he has so viciously attacked i would take him to the back of the wood shed and not just some committee on peer review........Thompson's pleadings are deranged delusional and seriously in need of review...these people are in danger.........

    When is the contempt hearing I won't miss it for the world.

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  20. Rumpole please enough is enough...

    "By Norm Kent

    As a gay rights lawyer for 30 years in South Florida, I have met some incredibly wild and weird people, from Fred Phelps to Anita Bryant.

    Twenty years ago, there was this guy who wanted radio talk show host Neil Rogers off the air not only because Neil was openly gay but because he was purportedly soliciting teenage boys for sex on the air.

    How loose a cannon was this guy? He was writing letters to the Sheriff and State Attorney demanding Neil be taken away in cuffs one minute, then stalking and following him home from work the next. In one instance, documented by testimony in court, he was accused of attempting to drive Neil off the road by his station on the 79th street Causeway.

    As Neil’s lawyer, I was so concerned about this aberrant behavior that the radio station and I went to court and sued this man, securing a Permanent Injunction and Restraining Order against him, barring him from coming within 500 yards of Neil’s person or property.

    We prevailed in court and secured injunctions and restraining orders which are still in effect today. In fact, Jack Thompson is facing a December court date for failing recently to abide by them. So until his recent violations, which I have never discussed here, and will prove up in court, Jack had to focus on other issues that would draw him notoriety.

    After Rogers, Jack targeted Janet Reno for allegedly being a lesbian, Luther Campbell and 2 Live Crew for being too obscene, and Howard Stern for being too pornographic. Last year, he was on TV haunting a retail store that sold scantily-clad Santa Clauses as a Christmas novelty gift. He fashioned himself into a morally-driven anti-pornography crusader.

    If there is a sexual issue that makes the news, there is likely going to be a press release coming from the bowels of the bedroom office of the Minister of Moral Gables. He will applaud Jim Naugle, censure the ACLU, and bash gay marriage. Still, he has found one new cause which has made him a known public figure. But not in the way he hoped. He has become the international laughingstock of the video gaming community.

    In the repressive McCarthy-like 1950’s you had zealots combating the spread of comic books. Today, you have Jack Thompson fighting video games on CNN and MSNBC, boldly telling the world how gamers become serial killers. Then you hear him say how he is suing the manufacturers to stop the release of ‘Bully,’ or ‘Grand Theft Auto’ or whatever. A little video game violence will lead to a major Jack Thompson press release. He will inject himself into scores of news reports on the subject.

    Ironically, on that last issue, he has never done any authentic research of his own. He argues his cause by touting the finding of others while filing lawsuits which have not prevailed. Thompson’s true colors have caught up with him, however. Judges from two different states have hammered him for abusing the legal system in separate cases where he was trying to make a case against video game violence.

    There is sweet irony in place here. This is a guy who relentlessly sought to remove Howard Stern from the airwaves for not abiding by the rules of indecency as articulated by the Federal Communications Commission. Today, while Howard Stern is making millions of dollars each year, Thompson is the target of his own regulatory agency, the Florida Bar, for not following the rules of civility our profession dictates.

    Here is a guy who has tried to make life miserable for millions of gamers internationally by interfering with their pleasure and enjoyment now crying in federal court that he can’t sleep at night and the whole deal is causing him angina. What is that Bible quote about reaping what you sow?

    Here is a guy who has cultivated a reputation crusading against obscenity and homosexual matters. He once actually filed a Bar complaint against me-unsuccessfully, of course- because the silhouette for my law office logo is of a “naked male” holding a scale of justice, instead of a blind female. Now he finds himself the target of a federal court judge who has accused him of unnecessarily filing indecent pleadings – gay porn- in court documents.

    Actually, the accusations are so many and varied against Thompson they are hard to summarize in a paragraph. I guess that is why the Florida Bar complaints are over 50 pages long. A conservative jurist from Alabama ruled Thompson lied and committed fraud in his pleadings. A liberal jurist in Dade County ruled that he had threatened the Court and demeaned the dignity of the forum.

    Law firms that represented guys like Jeb Bush, who you would think might side with Thompson, found his conduct reprehensible and violated a score of professional rules. They all filed complaints, not because of what Thompson believes, but because his methods were consummately unprofessional.

    The Florida Bar pursued these grievances, starting with my own in August of 2004. I brought to the attention of the Bar the wrongful nature of Mr. Thompson’s allegations against Beasley Broadcasting, who aired the Howard Stern Show on WQAM. Others followed, and the floodgates opened. Everyone finally started standing up to the schoolyard bully who was Jack Thompson. And the roof fell in for him. My own complaints seemed minimal compared to the other charges he began facing.

    For the past two years, the complaints have endured the exacting due process procedures of the Florida Bar. They first went to staff counsel, then to investigators, and then on to grievance committees, which are composed of cross sections of the Bar, the judiciary and the public. The grievances were validated again and again, following the slow and inexorable path to a final judgment.

    The Florida Bar filed suit against him for his misconduct in the Supreme Court earlier this year. The master of decency was charged with indecency. Thompson did not yield. He went to federal court and sued the entire Bar, the Supreme Court, his Bar referee, and the judge trying the case, blaming everyone but himself. The process has been stalled by his dilatory tactics, which include these suits that are methodically proving to be legally specious.

    All the pleadings Thompson files in courts were best summarized by one distinguished jurist, Paul Huck: “Thompson’s allegations are wild and baseless.”

    That thought was echoed this month by yet another District Court Judge, Adalberto Jordan: “Thompson seems to think there is this vast conspiracy against him everywhere…and that he did nothing wrong…just because he thinks so does not mean I have to agree…” Beware, Jack, here comes ‘da judge.’

    Heck, the Alabama Bar Association has set him down for trial in October, the Florida Bar Association in November, and a Broward Judge in December.

    Eventually he will pay a price and the Bar and Supreme Court of this state will exact sanctions against him which they deem appropriate.

    Last week, a federal judge told Jack that I have nothing to do with this case; that it is a Bar proceeding against him, not me or this website. Still, he can’t hear the message of the court. He filed another pleading today trying to name me as a defendant. Not satisfied calling Nationalgaynews a porn portal, today he referred to us as a ‘cesspool.’ For all the time he spends here reading us online, what does that make him?

    I am a lawyer who has a link on normkent.com to nationalgaynews, which has a link to adult sites. If you go to those adult sites, and then link into one or two of them, you may find graphic photos.

    According to Thompson, that means I am guilty of criminally trafficking in obscenity. The guy actually wrote letters last week to the US Attorney, the State Attorney, the Sheriff, the FBI, and the Governor, asking that I be arrested for this immediately. If he expected me to shut up and look the other way, he picked the wrong guy.


    Jack sought and wanted publicity, and he is getting all the notoriety he begged for. It is just that Jack, you can’t control the joysticks anymore.

    You have run into something you forgot to take into account, whether it is on this website, on game politics.com, or the justice blogs of the ABA journal.

    We call it a free press. Deal with it."

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  21. Others may have found America first, but we late comers were the first to conquer,populate,plunder and enslave it!

    Cortez,Pizarro and the Founding Fathers :)

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  22. Rumpole, where's your greek, man? the word "the" does not appear in front of "hoi poloi." You fight with hoi poloi for parking spots.

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  23. Christopher Columbus Discovered America. Yeah Sure!

    He thought the planet was square.
    Traveled many places but we already had been there.

    Mike B - Jungle Brothers

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  24. Self-hatred is sad, and real. It will be the downfall of liberal western democracies, to be replaced by something much less free, amd much more ugly.

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  25. Neil Young... Cortez The Killer

    He came dancing across the water with his galleons and guns; look-ing for the new world in that palace in the sun.
    On the shore lay montezuma with his coca leaves and pearls
    In his halls he often wondered
    With the secrets of the worlds.
    And his subjects gathered round him
    Like the leaves around a tree
    In their clothes of many colors
    For the angry gods to see.
    And the women all were beautiful
    And the men stood straight and strong; they offered life in sacri-
    fice so that others could go on.
    Hate was just a legend and war was never known; the people worked to-gether and they lifted many stones.
    They carried them to the flatlands
    And they died along the way
    But they built up with their bare hands what we still cant do today.
    And I know shes living there and she loves me to this day;I still cant remember when or how I lost my way.
    He came dancing across the water
    Cortez, Cortez What a killer.

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  26. So much for a governor who picks the best person. Safie got the appointment. Oh well, politics is politics. I guess we forgot how the governor's general counsel got his wife a seat on the 3rd DCA.

    The battle continues.

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  27. What does the word "discover" mean?

    Africans probably discovered the Americas.

    Pacific Islanders discovered the Americas.

    The Norse discovered the Americas.

    But it was only Columbus and his men whose discovery, for better or worse, had any lasting impact. His accounts were recorded and disseminated. They encouraged others to follow. Cortez followed shortly and rewrote the history of empires. Against this... the prior "discovery" of the Americas by others was a nullity.

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  28. Wonder how Jack the Wack did today with Jordan?

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  29. gs up + 5 today

    goog up 100 usd since i picked it 6 weeks ago.

    more picks to follow after volitile earnings week

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  30. Vikings came around 1200.

    These Africans came around 1000.

    Scott Africa

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  31. THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

    Gov. Crist has named his replacement for the open seat of Judge Pereyra Shuminer.

    Nushin Sayfie, of the Dade County Public Defender's Office has been chosen over Lisa Walsh, Judge George Sarduy, and previously eliminated Joe Davis, Miguel De La O and Judge Darrin Gayles.

    As I previously wrote several weeks ago, contrary to the typical Bush move of appointing a County Court Judge and getting a 2 for 1, Gov. Crist has chosen a private attorney in all but one open seat throughout the State during his first year in office.

    Next up is the open seat of Judge Jorge Perez, who recently resigned to go back into private practice.

    CAPTAIN OUT ..........

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  32. g.s. finished up 12 bucks on the day.

    why me?

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  33. Oh Batman how bitter you are! Washed up is actually what you are. Those judicial seats you craved were never yours!

    Accept the fact that Nushin is a great intelligent lawyer,with great temperament,attributes that YOU obviously lack.These are the reasons you are stuck on the outside looking in!

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  34. Right about now, controversial attorney Jack Thompson should be standing before a federal judge in Miami.

    Judge Adalberto Jordan, lately the target of Thompson’s intense vitriol, has scheduled a 9:30 hearing for this morning.

    Jordan will give Thompson an opportunity to explain why he shouldn’t be referred to an ad hoc disciplinary committee for adding hardcore gay porn to the court docket in a September 24th filing.

    Judge Jordan will also hear an argument from the defendants (the Florida Bar and Judge Dava Tunis, the referee in Thompson’s Bar disciplinary trial) to dismiss the case.

    Late yesterday Thompson filed a motion with Chief Judge Frederico Moreno in a bid to have Judge Jordan removed from the case. From here it looks like just another attempt to delay the inevitable.

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  35. I was a public defender years back. I left around the election. I remember Safie as a liberal coolish type. I think she will be a fair judge.

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  36. Yeah and under your discovery theory Columbus also was then responsible for the Genocide of Native American peoples.

    While all the others who had previously come to the Americas
    were able to leave without destroying the civilizations they encountered, Columbus and the
    Europeans decimated cultures,
    beliefs and more importantly whole
    groups of people.

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  37. 848 pm -

    Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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  38. Rump
    The Asians came her 10,000- to 15000 years ago. Meso-America was thriving in Europe's dark ages. Carbon dating of remains in Argentina show humans living here 9,000 years ago
    DS

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  39. Columbus never stepped foot on American Soil. Go back to college and learn the facts all over again.

    Which is the best SAO office for a graduating law student to start their career in prosecution: Palm Beach, Broward, or Miami? The best office is no office. Your best is to start prosecution of self, because for the rest of your lives, your going to have to start making up your own list of dirty laundry and while your at it, stick it under your pillow with along wth 10 hail Mary's and a mercy plea, because your going to have to give God time to figure out a suitable punishment for all the lies and deception and for the people that were innocent are stuck behind bars, kidnapped their children and sentenced to death, via hersay, fabrication of evidence, falsified documents, and corruption of justice. Before you cast that stone upon another, look at yourself with crystal clarity.

    About Senator McSame's running mate, I think it may be Governor Crist, is he getting MARRIED? or word's out, it's a female.

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