SATZ STRIKES BACK!

Fast on the heels of an independent expert finding that the Broward SAO convicted an innocent 15 year old boy and sent him to prison for life in 1983, the Broward Blog reports here the reaction of Broward State Attorney Mike Satz.

Did Satz thank the expert for helping his office do justice and correct a horrendous wrong?

Nope.

Did Satz vow to scrutinize cases where a defendant's confession doesn't match the facts?

Nope.

Satz did the Broward Thing- his office threatened the expert! And really, when you think about the Broward SAO, would you expect anything less then them threatening the people who helped free an innocent man they put in prison? Why if experts start freeing all the innocent people the Broward SAO has put on death row or obtained a life sentence for, the Florida Prison industry itself would be shaken to the core.

QUERY: What happens to you as a prosecutor when you convict an innocent man (or boy) and obtain a life or death sentence?

ANSWER: In Broward, THEY MAKE YOU A JUDGE!

Judge Robert Carney was the prosecutor in 1983 who put Anthony Caravella behind bars for life. But it was not all wine and roses for Carney at the 1983 trial. Carney tried to get the state to murder the 15 year old boy with an IQ of 67, but even for a jury in Broward that was a bit much. Fred Grimm in the Herald reports here that Judge Arthur Franza was a mite disappointed with the jury's decision to spare the young man's life:

Circuit Judge Arthur J. Franza seemed disappointed. ``I'll tell you this, Anthony: If the jury had recommended death, I would have had you electrocuted.''

Yeah, there's nothing like the chance to send a black 15 year old boy to death row that makes a Broward judge's heart go "pit-a-pat".

But just in case you're thinking "Come on Rumpole, give Carney a break. It was a tragic mistake", Fred Grimm points out, this is the SECOND INNOCENT MAN former prosecutor and now Circuit Court Judge Robert Carney tried to have the state electrocute.

Carney also put Frank Purvis on death row before Purvis was cleared by DNA evidence. Carney had his confession in Purvis's case as well, and the fact Purvis was a schizophrenic with the mind of a 12 year old mattered not one whit to Carney. People don't make false confessions, right? Right?

And as Fred Grimm points out, Carney was not the only ASA in the roaring 80's to put someone on death row who was rewarded with an appointment to the Bench.

Federal Judge William Dimitrouleas was a Broward ASA when he prosecuted Frank Lee Smith, another mentally disturbed individual who ended up on death row for a crime he did not commit. But don't feel too bad for Dimitrouleas, he actually got his wish as Smith died on death row before DNA exonerated him.

BTW: Smith took the rap for a Broward serial killer who remained free to continue his killing spree as BSO homicide detectives "rounded up the usual suspects" when confronted with crimes they could not solve. North of the Border "rounding up the usual suspects" meaning finding the closest mentally ill man near the crime, and if he happens to be an African American, so much the better.

Meanwhile, Satz and his clones decided to attack the nationally renowned DNA expert who worked on Anthony Caravella's case:

Blake said Friday he received a ``harassing'' e-mail this week from the Broward state attorney's office indicating that, contrary to public statements about undoing a terrible injustice, the office would try to undermine his lab's credibility. If so, it would be a stunning tactic, given his national reputation. (With a list of high profile DNA cases that runs 51 pages, including the lab work that cleared Allen Crotzer and Luis Diaz, the wrongly accused Bird Road Rapist.)

``It appears they've gone into full scale cover-up mode,'' Blake said Friday. In Broward, we've been there before.

Don't you just love our justice system? Don't you feel so secure that men like Mike Satz ("kill em all, let the lord sort em out") are in charge of dispensing justice and protecting the innocent? Of course you do, unless you happen to be a mentally ill black man living in Broward. Because if you are, you just might end up in prison for a crime you didn't commit.

See you in court tomorrow.