Saturday, May 12, 2012

NAME THAT DEFENSE

"Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall."
Shakespeare, Measure for Measure.  


There used to be a game show called "Name That Tune" in which contestants dueled each other  in how few notes they could identify the song. Now comes our own favourite Federal Blogger who has been retained to represent Miami filmmaker nee REGJB  juror Billy Corbin who has been summoned to appear before Judge Joe "Don't tweet with me" Fernandez  to explain why he engaged in a little social media-ing during a trial in which he served on the jury. Enter DOM who, never missing an opportunity for a clever quip,  told ace Herald reporter David Ovalle this:  “I can defend Billy in 140 characters or less: He absolutely did nothing wrong.(78 for those of you counting at home.)


Rumpole plagiarizes: "Some rise by Facebook, and some by virtue fall with Twitter." 



MARLINS COMEBACK!
Your Miami Marlins blew a one run lead in the eight inning and  were down 5-3 going into the ninth inning. But a bloop walk off  single by Gregg Dobbs in the bottom of the ninth  brought everyone to their feet as the Marlins won for the ninth time in ten games. 

JOHN GOODMAN SENTENCED
John Goodman, the Palm Beach businessman/socialite/Roy Black client was sentenced to sixteen years yesterday for DUI manslaughter. The Sun Sentinel article is here.  The Judge denied a hotly contested motion for a new trial based on a juror who self published an e-book between verdict and sentencing in which the juror described a test he engaged in to see if the defense theory of the case was plausible. The judge set a seven million dollar supersedeas bond (appellate bond for you robed readers) after the defense agreed to hire off duty police officers for twenty four hour security, along with electronic monitoring.  

Enjoy your beautiful weekend.  

15 comments:

  1. Billy Corbin is a twit. His movies are ridiculous. I'm not surprised a twit got into hot water with Twitter.

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  2. i thought corbin and markus were tweeting with one another while corbin was a juror. now he is his lawyer. this might be a cluster fuck.

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  3. Corbin may get 120 something days... Don't forget the characters involved..

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  4. Corbin didn't do anything wrong. He never mentioned the case, judge, or attorneys by name.

    There is nothing that says jurors can't communicate with people when court is not in session. That is why the invented sequestering.

    If he ha walked out of the courtroom at lunch and texted a friend that the food sucked, it is no different than tweeting that same thought to your followers.


    Conducting your own research is different. Drinking to see how it effects you, going to see the scene to see for yourself what the lighting is. Those things make a juror not a finder of fact, but a witness themselves. It wrong. Goodman should get a new trial.

    I love Sara Yousef, but Corbin's actions had no bearing on the outcome as far as I can see.

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  5. Great job by Black. No juror to marry and jury not bribed by his clients[Willy and Sal). Any lawyer could have got a 16 yr sentence for his client. Goodman did not have to pay millions for this result.Maybe Goodman can attend with his police escorts next years Black "Gala".

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  6. For $7 million Palm Beach County might be better off if Goodman bolted.

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  7. Assuming his appeal is denied, why would Goodman return to serve this sentence? He has the money to spend the rest of his life living well anywhere.

    Not only that, but his "daughter" can go to live with him so he can still get some nookie.

    America is the best place in the world to live, but being in an American jail does not beat living on the beach in Borneo.

    He could probably buy his way into Cuba. It would be like he never left South Florida.

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  8. Angry Gurl demonstrates either the "wrath of a woman scorned" or the jealousy of of an ignorant man.

    Was Corbin actually indeliberations? if so why didn't Fernandez have his bailiff collect and hold the phones? If he was not in deliberations, I agree with 9:28, he did nothing wrong.

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  9. conviction will get reversed!

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  10. If a judge says don't tweet about your jury service, YOU DON'T TWEET ABOUT YOUR JURY SERVICE! Corben lives in a fantasy world and he thinks everyone has to accept it. Court is different. Any lawyer that doesn't see that is denigrating the profession.

    Even if the violation doesn't amount to a new trial, it's still contemptous conduct. I don't think jail is out of the scope of possible sentences either.

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  11. Jail for tweeting? You people are out of your minds.

    The admonition is not that jurors should not tweet about jury service. They are instructed to not reaearch, google, Internet, magazines, newspaper, about the case.

    If every juror who communicates that the food sucks were jailed, we could never get a panel.

    Fernandez is getting all this free press. He has a chance to show he is a dick or an understanding judge. Even though he is a dick to all the attorneys who come in front of him, I don't think he is dumb enough to jail a guy who is on local radio, on the discovery channel, and makes documentaries for a living.

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  12. If fernandez was a dick to you then you must be a dick. He takes lawyers out of turn immediately, he grants continuances if you are really working on your cases and he pleads cases out. I've known him for over 10 years and I think he's as good as there is. He's far from a dick when you have Brennan and Glick in the building.

    And BTW Corbin commented about more than just the view and the food. And his comments invited responses which could be interpreted as trying to influence a juror.

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  13. And, I looked it up, the admonition does say "jury service"

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  14. The food has nothing to do with "jury service" if that is the word for word admonition.

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  15. If a juror stood out in front of the courthouse during a break and shouted that the food sucks, would that be a violation of the instruction?

    I don't think so.

    A tweet is nothing more than an electronic shout.

    Just as stupid and pointless.

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