WE'RE NUMBER ONE ..... & MATTHEWMAN IS CHIEF .....

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

DEATH IS DIFFERENT .......

On Thursday, Florida executed Edward Zakrkewski, age 60, for killing his wife and his two children. He was the ninth person put to death in Florida this year, breaking the record for the most executions in our state in one year since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976.  The good news (for those of you who are proponents of the death penalty) is that Governor DeSantis still has five months left in 2025 to extend his record.

In fact, DeathSantis has already signed two more Death Warrants for August. Florida has scheduled the execution of Kayle Bates on August 19 and of Curtis Windom on August 28. Florida executed two men in July, including Zakrkewski.  If he keeps up this pace of two executions per month, Florida will have executed 19 inmates by the end of the year, 11 more than any other year.  Texas and South Carolina are a distant second - they have each executed four this year.

Florida uses a three-drug cocktail to carry out the death sentence: a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart.

Attorneys for Zakrkewski filed numerous appeals in an attempt to stay the execution. They cited Zakrkewski’s military service in the Air Force as well as the fact that the jury voted 7-5 for death. Under current state law, he would not have received the death penalty.

If you are a criminal defense attorney and have an interest in handling Death Penalty cases, you will need to take a death penalty seminar. The two most popular seminars in Florida include:

1. Death is Different. Sponsored by FACDL, the statewide organization hosts this seminar over two days every March.

2. Life Over Death. Sponsored by the Florida Public Defender’s Association, the seminar will be held on September 4 - 5, 2025, in Charlotte Harbor, Florida. You can register for the seminar by going here:  

MATTHEWMAN IS CHIEF .....

Let’s end the week on a more positive note.  Longtime readers know that attorney Bill Matthewman was one of us for a long time. He began his career as a police officer. He eventually went to law school at the University of Florida, graduating in 1983. If recollection serves me correctly, Judges Scott Bernstein and Jonathan Colby were both in Matthewman’s graduating law school class. 

For 29 years, Matthewman was a lawyer, one of the best in South Florida, spending much of his time as a criminal defense attorney. One of his most famous cases was the last case he tried to a jury, here at the GJB, in 2012. In that case, his client was Adam Kaufman, a real estate developer from Aventura who was accused of murdering his wife. The case received heavy media coverage, and Court TV covered the case, gavel to gavel. The case was dubbed “the spray tan murder case” because Matthewman’s initial defense was that Kaufman’s wife may have died from an allergic reaction to a full-body spray tan.  Matthewman dug further and discovered that Lina Kaufman had actually died as a result of an undiagnosed heart condition, myocarditis.  The jury found Kaufman not guilty. Six weeks after the trial, Matthewman accepted an appointment as a United States Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of Florida.

On Friday, July 25, Matthewman rose to Chief Magistrate Judge, taking over for retiring Judge Jonathan Goodman. Best of luck, Judge Matthewman, although we know you won’t need it.

CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com

BIDEN CHOOSES LIFE

 Fresh on the heels of two Miami Dade juries choosing life for two men previously convicted of two senseless homicides last Friday, President Biden commuted the death sentences of every defendant on federal death row save three: 

From the NY Times Article 

The three men who can still face federal execution are Robert D. Bowers, 52, who in 2018 gunned down 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh; Dylann Roof, 30, the white supremacist who in 2015 opened fire on Black parishioners at a church in Charleston, S.C., killing nine people; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 31, one of the two brothers who carried out the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013 that killed three and maimed more than a dozen others.

Rumpole muses- these are difficult issues.  Those who have experienced loss in their lives are often left to wonder why the person who caused the loss is allowed to live while their loved one is gone. This is the reason we should not turn questions of punishment over to victims and survivors. A justice system predicated on emotional vengeance is neither a justice system or justice. It is mob rule. A century ago and more, Mobs dragged innocent African American men out of southern jail cells and hung them in emotional reaction to the crimes they were accused of (usually involving accusations of crimes against white women)- we do not want to return to those times. 

In more recent times the vernacular has changed as those in power call the accused and convicted (not to mention immigrants) "Animals".  When you dehumanize people you get dehumanizing results inconsistent with a society founded on the principle that all people are created equal, not to mention the Judeo-Christain ethics that current politicians wrap themselves in, which includes the reflection that all people were created in the image of The Creator. 

The ideals of our justice system is to rise up above the emotional need for vengeance. 

Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love...  

Dr. Martin Luther King. 

Our own (considerable) experience with the justice system is that we have met very few people whose violent acts cannot be explained and understood as a combination of tragedy, abuse, and illness. We have yet to meet a child who on their own is destined for violence. But we have met many adults who treat children in a manner that puts them on a path for tragedy. 

By commuting the death sentences President Biden rises up above the mob's cry for vengeance. A devout Catholic, it is no surprise that these commutations come after his meeting with the Pope last week. 

There is more to do. There are more people languishing in federal prison who are more deserving of a second chance for life than those who were on death row. If we were President we would want our staff to find every woman used as a mule for a drug organization who is serving a minimum mandatory sentence- and start with commuting their sentences and pardoning those who merit it. 

But this is a good continuation of his current polices of commuting sentences. There is more time and more work to do. 

FYI if you followed our football picks ye$terday, you can shoot us a thank$ in the comments. 

INVASIVE SPECIES

Correction- we updated the post to reflect that it was Judge Delancey and not Judge Brinkley who provided over this mess. 

BREAKING: THE STATE CONCEDED ON THE NEED FOR A NEW PENALTY PHASE- but the defense wants the entire verdict tossed.  Somewhere MVZ has just felt a great disturbance in the force as the Dade SAO has acted in the interests of justice. 

  

 

 In South Florida we have our share of invasive species wrecking havoc. From pythons in the Everglades, to DeSantis Drone Judges spouting MAGA crap, invasive species are a problem. 

Which brings us to the hearing unfolding his week before Judge Delancy. 

Fresh off a death recommendation in a notorious case, an email arrived in the Judge's in-box from a juror in the case, reporting another juror who described the defendant as "an invasive animal species that needs to be killed". 

There was also chatter about a juror who told other jurors that they spoke to their husband about the case during deliberations who sagely advised her that eleven other jurors could not be wrong (wanting death). 

So much for the rule, often repeated in appellate opinions, that jurors are presumed to follow jury instructions. 

Unless of course the instructions have changed and jurors are now told to ignore their own personal opinions and just go along with the crowd, and that defendants in death cases are labeled Invasive Animal Species. 

Yeah, the death penalty system, like our electoral system, is firing on all cylinders and working perfectly. 

Long weekend ahead unless you're Rumpole working Saturday (say high to us at MDC Brooklyn) and Monday (FDC Miami). 

STRATEGY

 This week we saw Nicholas Cruz, the infamous school shooter who killed seventeen people- children and teachers, and shot an additional seventeen people, at the school in Parkland, Broward County, plead guilty, which placed the case into the penalty phase in the Florida "dance with death" scheme for the death penalty. 

Was the move a good one? None other than Roy Black (cue Star Wars storm trooper music, which is surely what prosecutors hear when Mr. Black strides into a courtroom for trial)  opined in the DBR that the move was wrong. Rumpole of the Bailey famously said "never ever ever plead guilty." Mr. Black agrees.  (Perhaps he has something to do with this blog? Nah. Highly unlikely). 

Other commentators including the REGJB's own Phil Reizenstein  have praised the move in the media, saying the the defense had no path to an acquittal and the plea allows the defense to argue at the sentencing phase that the defendant has remorse, and has accepted responsibility and pled to crimes mandating a life prison sentence. In the same Ovalle/Herald article Gail Levine, late of major crimes at the Dade SAO disagreed, opining that the delay between the two phases of the trial would allow the horrors of the crimes to recede somewhat in the jurors' minds. Levine also said the strategy would not work unless Cruz decided to testify, which of course would open himself up to what would surely be one of the most devastating cross examinations in modern legal history. 

Clearly some very experienced lawyers see the Cruz strategy differently. 

So what say you? 

As a general principle we agree with Mr. Black. Not only should a defendant never plead guilty to what is potentially the maximum sentence, we also never approve of the strategy of admitting certain charges during the trial, while contesting others. The thought behind this strategy is that by admitting some charges, the defense "buys credibility" with the jury. Balderdash. It rarely if ever works. 

But the Cruz case is almost unique in its horror, devastation, and loss of life.  And the prospect of the 17 survivors who are listed as victims of attempted first degree murder, testifying about the horrors they experienced of being shot and seeing their friends and teachers murdered, may well be more devastating testimony than the testimony about the victims who died. 

The Cruz defense is in one of the worst positions we have ever seen a case. And their client did himself no favors with his disjointed statement to the families during his plea, during which he said he was pleading guilty for them. 

And on a separate issue, jury selection is set to begin January 4, 2022. Over/under on how long it takes to seat a jury? We say 70 days, and it goes over. 

A BROWARD PLEA?

UPDATE: Nikolas Cruz pled guilty to seventeen counts of first degree murder in the Parkland school shooting case. The case will now proceed to the penalty phase. 

Rumpole says: Never plead guilty. As our old bookie client Pollo Pete used to say "Never admit to nuttin". But every rule has an exception (except our rule that we no longer accept cases in Broward). From the defense standpoint, they wanted to proceed to a penalty phase without a jury having received all the evidence in the guilt phase. Short circuiting the trial appeared their best attempt at that. 

The Broward SAO (no legal geniuses they) will not be deterred and will just put all their guilt evidence on during the penalty phase.

The final analysis: the defense gains a slight edge in proceeding to a penalty phase being able to argue to the jury about having spared the shooting victims and parents a trial. It's a slight gain, but in cases like these, sometimes that's all you can get. 

Item: Anders Brievik shot and killed 69 people at a youth camp in Norway in 2011. Previously he killed 8 people with a car bomb. With conflicting psychiatric opinions about schizophrenia, he  was sentenced to a "commitment" which in Norway meant a minimum of 10 years, with a review at 21 years. His sentence can be indefinite. But Norway allows for the understanding of psychiatric illness and treatment and the possibility (ala John Hinkley which we examined in a prior post) of release. Cruz has no possibility of release other than a certain former President being elected Governor of Florida and commuting his sentence based on conspiracy theories the tragic shooting never occurred. 

 The defense world is buzzing over whether the defendant in the infamous and tragic Broward school shooting is going to plead open to the court today.

The defense strategy from day one was to offer a plea in exchange for a waiver of the death penalty. "No deal" said the Prince Of Darkness (former SA Mike Satz) who somehow remains on the case although he retired. 

The hearing is at 10-10:30 ish in Broweird. We will be monitoring it from our Peloton Bike. 

Topic for the weekend- your favoourite Peloton instructors. Hannah Frankson is ours. Jenn Sherman is second. Some guy named Rad is our favourite for strength classes. 

PER CURIAM AND PILLOWCASES

@Davidovalle305 has done a superb job detailing the arrest and prosecution of South Florida's notorious "pillowcase rapist". In the late 1980's, before there was Starbucks and texting and people "beeped" each other, Miami was terrorized by a rapist. Then the investigation died out and life moved on. Last week there was a break in the case and ASA Laura Adams, no stranger she to important prosecutions has been assigned the case. We could not think of a better choice. 

Check out Ovalle's Herald story here. 


DEATH PENALTY REDUX 
Just when you thought it was over, the Florida Supreme Court, in an earth shaking, law making, Supreme Court Cert in waiting per curiam opinion (literally "too embarrassed to sign our names")
receded from their Hurst opinion and decided amongst other things that Florida juries do NOT have to have to unanimously recommend death. 

This is shameful. It ignores all of the US Supreme Court precedent and direct findings that Florida's prior sentencing scheme was unconstitutional. It's mindboggling that with such a serious ruling the opinion here is issued per curiam. Shameful. 

You can read the opinion here and decide if you need to shower afterwards. 

From the decision: 

The [Supreme]  Court ultimately held that “Florida’s sentencing scheme, which required the judge alone to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance, is therefore unconstitutional. 

...

 Nonetheless, this Court on remand concluded that Hurst v. Florida had far greater implications for Florida’s capital sentencing law.  The new rule announced in Hurst v. State was as follows:
[B]efore the trial judge may consider imposing a sentence of death, the jury in a capital case must unanimously and expressly find all the aggravating factors that were proven beyond a reasonable doubt, unanimously find that the aggravating factors are sufficient to impose death, unanimously find that the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors, and unanimously recommend a sentence of death
...

So there we have it. Florida joins the rest of the country requiring a unanimous jury recommendation of death. Something even Texas requires. 

But it just didn't sit well with those gals and fellas in Tallahassee and points north. "Y'all can't let defendants off with some high priced fancy lawyer reasonable doubt argument. Make em prove their innocence and hang em from the nearest tree."  was pretty much the chatter in the legal and lawmaking halls of our great and educated state. 

Well, how do you get this Supreme Court to overrule the last Supreme Court? We mean we cannot have judges legislating lord forbid. They just call balls and strikes. 
Time for some legal yoga. Bend a little this way. Stretch a little that way. Give lip service to stare decisis. Expound on not overruling a recent decision lightly. Take a deep breath and feed the meat to the public that wants executions. The quicker the better. No worries about actual innocence. Don't let jurors get in the way of a good lynching. 

 Last, lest there be any doubt, we hold that our state constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, article I, section 17,5 does not require a unanimous jury recommendation—or any jury recommendation—before a death sentence can be imposed.

These legal conservatives are many many things. Just don't ever argue that they are philosophically consistent. They are not. When their ox is gored they do what is needed to clean up the mess, even if it means legislating from the bench. 

REQUIEM FOR THE DEATH PENALTY

UPDATE: The best federal blog in the business looks at Judge Altman's remand at sentencing policy and discusses something we missed: the cost to the system of housing defendants in local facilities for upwards of a month before transporting them to their designated prison. DOM's blog has it here. 
http://sdfla.blogspot.com/

Since 1973 the Death Penalty has been wrongly imposed 165 times. By "wrongly" we mean the condemned individual was later exonerated- meaning they were innocent. Let that number 165 sink in. Can you do 165 pushups? If you lined each exonerated individual up on a football field, you would need two fields. The number of wrongly convicted individuals sentenced to death is most likely higher. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 for murdering his three children by splashing gasoline around the house and setting it on fire. Except subsequent  forensic analysis shows there was no gasoline used and the fire was probably caused by faulty electrical wiring. 

Clifford Williams Jr.  and Herbert Meyers were  sentenced to death in Florida in October, 1976 for breaking into a woman's home and shooting her in the head. Except Williams and Meyers had been at a birthday party miles away, confirmed by dozens of witnesses. And the small fact that the State alleged Williams shot the victim in the house, when there were bullet holes through glass and curtains showing the shots came from outside the house. Williams and Meyers were indigent African American men  with appointed lawyers who didn't call one witness.  Meyers who was 18 at the time and the nephew of Williams turned down the prosecution's offer of five years in prison to testify against his uncle. 

The jury was never told about their alibis; the jury didn't hear from the alibi witnesses; and the jury didn't know about the forensic evidence contradicting the prosecution's case. Both men were spared from death by a 4-3 vote of the Florida Supreme Court and languished in prison for 42 years- innocent men- and would have died in prison but for Jacksonville State Attorney Melissa Nelson. The Jacksonville SAO has a Conviction Integrity Unit. Here is their report on the Williams/Meyers exoneration. The Miami SAO, believing themselves to be perfect, does not have a process to review convictions. 

Here is the NY Times article  by Nicholas Kristoff on all you want to know about the death penalty and its abject failure in this country. 

Someday, perhaps in our lifetime, we will shake our heads at the dark days when state's executed inmates-innocent and guilty alike. 
And someday, someone with an ounce of brains and some courage in the Dade County State Attorneys Office will look at the numbers and say something like "Hey, if 165 innocent people were sentenced to death, how many innocent people are serving non-death prison sentences? Maybe we should do something about that."

It's an absolute stain on our country's soul that resources are not spent on examining wrongful non-death penalty convictions in a  systemic manner. An innocent  person serving a life sentence has to hope he or she can get an experienced lawyer interested in their case within the time periods set by law. 

Of course the US is currently in good company, with nations like North Korea, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, contributing to the most executions by nations. Bastions of enlightened judicial systems all. 

IT'S BACK ..... FLORIDA'S DEATH PENALTY ......

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

THE DEATH PENALTY IS "ALIVE" AND WELL IN OUR GREAT STATE OF FLORIDA ........

For those of you that have been following the never ending saga of Florida's Death Penalty Statute, you know it has been through the "Ring"er and back a few times over the past couple of years. 

In January of 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty law in Hurst v. Florida because the trial judge, rather than the jury, was responsible for finding critical facts necessary to impose a death sentence.  Then, in Perry v. State, the high court struck down an amended version of the statute, which had permitted judges to impose a death sentence if 10 or more jurors recommended death.

The Florida Supreme Court also ruled that the unanimity requirement would apply to death-row prisoners whose direct appeals had been decided after the United States Supreme Court's June 2002 decision in Ring v. Arizona which held that capital defendants had a right to a jury determination of all facts necessary to impose the death penalty.

Well now the State Legislature has gone and done it again.  They made sure that the first bill passed by both houses of the legislature would address the death penalty statute.  And Governor Scott barely waited until the ink was dry when the bill reach his desk.  Last night, he signed the new death penalty statute into law.  Scott signed  SENATE BILL SB-280, which had passed the Senate by a vote of 37-0, into law.  (The Senate Bill tracked the language in House Bill HB-527, which passed the House by a vote of 112-3). 

The key language in the new law states:

921.141 Sentence of death or life imprisonment for capital felonies:

 

2(c) If a unanimous jury determines that the defendant should be sentenced to death, the jury’s recommendation to the court shall be a sentence of death.   If a unanimous jury does not determine that the defendant should be sentenced to death, the jury’s  recommendation to the court shall be a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. 

 

SAD NEWS TO REPORT .......

 

DENISE KELLY JOHNSON has passed away.

 

You may not have known her despite the fact that she worked at the State Attorney's Office for the past 22 years.  But she was a force inside the office.  She was the Chief of the Child Support Enforcement Division and she oversaw more than 20 attorneys in that division that were assigned to work with parents who needed help obtaining child support from a parent who had not met their child support obligations.

 

She had suffered a stroke as she was leaving the office to attend the Investiture Ceremony of KFR on February 23rd.  Although she was released from the hospital last week and had begun physical therapy, she died suddenly on Friday at the age of 61.

 

The DBR covers the story here.

 

Our prayers go out to her family and to all those that worked with her at the State Attorney's Office.

 

CAPTAIN OUT .....

Captain4Justice@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE COSTS OF DEATH PENALTY DEFENSE

According to the Herald, the costs of defending a death penalty defense in Miami are high and it takes a real long time for the cases to go to trial or be resolved.

Mr. Abe Laeser was interviewed and he opined that defense attorneys have a financial incentive to drag the case out, which is one reason why the cases take so long to resolve. He seems to think this is a problem.

We beg to differ. 

This is Rumpole's defense of defense attorneys having a financial incentive on a case.

First, what would be the opposite of an attorney having a financial incentive in a case? It would be paying an attorney a flat fee. What would that do? No matter the fee- even if it were a million dollars per case, it would create the economic incentive to NOT explore every issue, challenge every fact, look for every possible witness and consider every possible defense.
Who wants an attorney like that? Only prosecutors.

The death penalty in this county is a national shame. With all the work and supposed expertise of detectives, prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys- courts still send INNOCENT men and women to death row at the fairly consistent average of 5 percent. Five people out of every hundred sentenced to death are INNOCENT.

So what we want is every attorney to have the greatest possible financial incentive to work on the case as hard as possible. The more they work, the more they earn. It works in civil law, why not criminal law? The more they work, the more possible issues and defenses are uncovered. The more the defense attorney works, the harder it is for a prosecutor to obtain a death sentence.

Far from being a problem in death penalty cases, the current method of paying criminal defense attorneys (other than having an hourly rate akin to a plumber and not a skilled professional) is one of the only things standing between society's desire for vengeance and an innocent person being executed.

But what about those cases where "we know he did it"? 

Ask Richard Jewell about what happens when everyone in the country "knows" you did it. (You can't actually. He died of a heart attack.)

Ask the five juveniles (four black, one Hispanic) who were convicted of raping the central park jogger what happens when everyone "knows" you did it and you are sentenced to prison and your case is affirmed on appeal. Ask them about being innocent in the face of everyone "knowing" you did it.

Keep the incentives. Just pay the lawyers more.

See you in court.

ANOTHER DEATH PENALTY WIN

BLOG RUCKUS UPDATE: 
We received an email from the attorney who we were upset with ( it took a few days). He apologized for the contretemps. 
He said he was taking down the automatic feed. In response to that we are deleting our last two blog posts. 
Even Steven. 


It just keeps getting worse and worse for proponents of the death penalty (Motto "kill em all, guilty or innocent.") .

Judge Brennan granted a defense motion to strike the death penalty because the ASA failed to file the new notice of intent to seek death with the applicable aggravating factors within the time periods prescribed by the new statute. 

Chris Decoste with RC3 with the nice win. 

This decision is case specific and doesn't have the precedential  value of Judge Hirsch's order, but a win is a win. 

Query: is the death penalty dead?

RUMPOLE RUCKUS

Lots of negative comments about our actions with the blog-thief, even from long-time and careful blog readers. 

Take our new poll. 

NOT IN MY HOUSE...OR STATE

Judge Milton Hirsch, fresh off a well deserved re-election, declared Florida's Death Penalty Statute (Motto: "Send em all to death row  and let the fed courts sort it out on Habeas") unconstitutional.

In the milieu of the machinery of death, there are various legal reasons why Florida's death penalty statute, to use a technical legal term, sucks. See, for example, Justice Breyer's courageous dissent in Glossip v. Gross, which raises fundamental Eighth Amendment issues.

But Judge Hirsch, no legislator on the bench he, stuck to the narrow issue of the lack of the requirement of unanimity in the death penalty statute. Where only North Korea, Mars, and some counties in Alabama allow for the execution of its citizens by a non-unanimous jury verdict, Florida proudly embraces its heritage of allowing a minority of its citizens to kill a majority of defendants, as long as they are mostly minorities.

So with no further ado, and with no quotes from Guy De Maupassant, Alan Alda, Buzz Aldrin, or Disraeli, we present the Honorable Judge Milton Hirsch's strike for the humanity and dignity of our troubled state:

Hirsch Order Dp Unconstittuional by Rumpole21

FLORIDA'S NEW DEATH PENALTY STATUTE

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

HOUSE BILL 7101 - FLORIDA'S NEW DEATH PENALTY STATUTE

The Florida Legislature wrangled over several drafts of the rewrite of Florida's Death Penalty law before finally coming to agreement last month.  The House voted 93-20 and the Senate's vote was 35-5.  Today, without much fanfare, Governor Scott signed the bill into law.

And so now the real battles begin.  It will be fought by the Public Defender Offices and Regional Counsel Offices throughout the State of Florida as new death penalty cases are filed.  It will be fought on an appellate level - as of March 7, 2016, there are currently 389 inmates on Florida's Death Row. (For a list of those - go here ).

HB-7101 takes effect immediately.  The law requires that juries in capital cases agree unanimously on the aggravating factors that Florida law requires to justify imposition of a death sentence.  The law also requires at least 10 of 12 jurors to agree on a recommendation of death.  Only one other state, Alabama, has that system.

Here are the highlights of HOUSE BILL 7101:

782.04 Murder (1)(b):

(b) In all cases under this section, the procedure set forth in s. 921.141 shall be followed in order to determine sentence of death or life imprisonment. If the prosecutor intends to seek the death penalty, the prosecutor must give notice to the defendant and file the notice with the court within 45 days after arraignment. The notice must contain a list of the aggravating factors the state intends to prove and has reason to believe it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt. The court may allow the prosecutor to amend the notice upon a showing of good cause.

 
921.141
Sentence of death or life imprisonment for capital felonies; further proceedings to determine sentence

(2) FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDED SENTENCE BY THE JURY:

(b) The jury shall return findings identifying each aggravating factor found to exist. A finding that an aggravating factor exists must be unanimous. If the jury: 

1. Does not unanimously find at least one aggravating factor, the defendant is ineligible for a sentence of death. 

2. Unanimously finds at least one aggravating factor, the defendant is eligible for a sentence of death and the jury shall make a recommendation to the court as to whether the defendant shall be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or to death.

(c) If at least 10 jurors determine that the defendant should be sentenced to death, the jury's recommendation to the court shall be a sentence of death. If fewer than 10 jurors determine that the defendant should be sentenced to death, the jury's recommendation to the court shall be a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The Tampa Bay Times covers the story here.

CAPTAIN OUT .....
Captain4Justice@gmail.com
   

WHERE HURST WENT WRONG

The United States Supreme Court found Florida's death penalty statute unconstitutional in Hurst v. Florida.  
But the court dropped the ball. Or more accurately the court didn't even take a swing at a hanging curve ball. 

Here's what the United Supreme Court did: it invalidated Florida's death penalty statute because the judge instead of the jury is the ultimate decider of whether the defendant should be sentenced to death: 

The State fails to appreciate the central and singular role the judge plays under Florida law. As described above and by the Florida Supreme Court, the Florida sentencing statute does not make a defendant eligible for death until “findings by the court that such person shall be punished by death.” Fla. Stat. §775.082(1) (emphasis added). The trial court alone must find “the facts . . . [t]hat sufficient aggravating circumstances exist” and “[t]hat there are insufficient mitigating circumstances to outweigh the aggravating circumstances.” §921.141(3); see Steele, 921 So. 2d, at 546. “[T]he jury’s function under the Florida death penalty statute is advisory only.” Spaziano v. State, 433 So. 2d 508, 512 (Fla. 1983). The State cannot now treat the advisory recommendation by the jury as the necessary factual finding that Ring requires.

Here's what the court didn't do: invalidate  Florida death penalty statute because it allows a jury to recommend a sentence of death by less than a unanimous vote. 

So as you are reading this blog,  there are legislators in Tallahassee who, between expectorating mouth-fulls of tobacco juice, are mulling around saying "so all we have to do is re-write this doggone law and let the damn jury decide to fry the defendant. An it don't even have to be unanimous. So lets go get Jim-bob, he knows how to use that dang computer writer thingy. "

Considering the legislature's prior well known distaste for allowing judge's any say in sentencing, this shouldn't be too difficult for the denizens of Tallahassee. 

Hurst was a win. Just not a big win. 

See you in court. 

THE DEATH OF THE DEATH PENALTY?

This exchange before the US Supreme Court yesterday may just have killed Florida's Death Penalty Statute

JUSTICE BREYER:  Suppose that the jury comes  back at the sentencing phase and says, we recommend  life...

 JUSTICE BREYER:  No, we ­­ we have ­­ they  have a page in their opinion, in their brief, you know,  Page 20, where it cites about six Florida cases, which  suggested to me that they thought the answer to that  question as a matter of Florida law was, Yes, the judge  can sentence to death.  

MR. WINSOR:  Yeah.  Let me ­­ let me ­­ 
  JUSTICE BREYER:  Is that so or not so? 

  MR. WINSOR:  Let me be clear:  As a matter  of Florida statutory law, it is permitted.  We  acknowledge that under Ring it would not be permitted in the circumstance where the State is relying on the  recommendation to satisfy the eligibility...

Let us interpret for you:
Justice Breyer wanted to know if Florida permitted a life  override- where a jury recommends life and the judge sentences the defendant to death. Florida law allows such a heinous result. 

Winsor- the attorney arguing for Florida, admitted that such a result was both authorized by Florida law and violated Ring v. Arizona. 

That sound you heard was defendants everywhere in Florida sentenced to death under such a blatantly unconstitutional scheme cheering.  That sound you heard was also bloodthirsty Florida prosecutors weeping in their death cocktails. 

Florida's death penalty statute will be struck down faster than a judge downing free hors-d'oeuvres at a judicial reception.  

You read it here first.

IMAGINE

Imagine getting stopped for speeding. Imagine a rude cop (we know, it's hard, but try). Imagine telling the officer you weren't speeding and then imagine finding yourself on the ground, in cuffs, arrested for resisting arrest with violence. 

Imagine getting your case set before one of these new "get tough on crime judges" who are trying to develop a reputation by sentencing people to maximum prison sentences who go to trial and lose. 
Imagine getting a win-at-all-cost-prosecutor assigned to your case. Imagine going to trial and the jury believing the police officer and imagine the judge sentencing you to four years in prison and telling you s/he was giving you a break and not sentencing you to the maximum because you have no priors and young children. 

Imagine being innocent and being in prison. 

Now imagine being convicted and sentenced to death and being innocent. 

This NY Times Op Ed has all the latest stats on innocent people being sentenced to death. 

152 since 1973. 

Imagine being innocent on death row and after a decade of work by under-paid-over-worked public attorneys, they get you off death row and your sentence commuted to life. They are thrilled having saved your life. You are still condemned to a living hell. 

Here's what you don't have to imagine: the current view of prosectors.

Responding to the searing honesty of Mr. Stroud’s letter, the parish’s current first assistant district attorney, Dale Cox, offered up some candor of his own: “I’m a believer that the death penalty serves society’s interest in revenge,” Mr. Cox told The Shreveport Times. “I think we need to kill more people.”

Mr. Cox, a prosecutor charged to do justice, made this comment in response to A.M. Stroud, a former prosecutor in Cox's office who made an apology to a man he wrongfully convicted and put on death row and who remained in prison for 30 wrong years. Mr. Stroud said he worked in a system that had  a "win-at-all-costs" atmosphere. 
Mr. Cox, responded to that criticism by upping the ante, as it were. He moved all in. "Kill em all, let the lord sort em out." 

Nice. 

There are at least a 152 people who don't need to imagine this scenario in the country with the world's greatest justice system.* It happened to them. 

See You In Court. 




* We don't believe that for a moment. This is sarcasm. Our system is broken almost beyond being fixable. 

A BROKEN SYSTEM

A Louisiana Prosecutor who put an innocent man on death row says the system is broken. 
The Huffington Post has the full story here. 
The Prosecutor, Marty Stroud had some interesting things to say: 

Now, Stroud is sharing his story, both as a cautionary tale and as a call to action for ending the death penalty. Stroud appeared on MSNBC Wednesday night with a warning to prosecutors:

"They should take heed in the fact that if something does go wrong, as it did in this case, it will be with them until the day they leave this earth."

Prosecutors should want justice, not convictions," Stroud said. "We still deal in the politics of blood."

"I don’t know where for the life of me we get off preaching to other countries about their criminal justice systems," Stroud said. "We need to look inward. We’re with the likes of the Yemen and North Korea and Iran."

"We can’t trust the government to fix potholes," he continued. "Why should we believe they can design a death penalty system that's fair?"

This area of the law is not our bailiwick or milieu, but we have noticed this: Florida's death penalty system is an outlier. Florida is only one of two states that allows a person to be sentenced to death without the unanimous recommendation of a jury. In following the Federal Ring line of decisions, it seems apparent that the system does not follow what the Supreme Court has said is the constitutional requirements for enhanced sentencing. Now the US Supreme Court has accepted Cert on a case challenging Florida's death penalty law. The law was held unconstitutional by a federal judge in our district (Judge Martinez we believe).  The case will be argued next term. 

And yet, all through the state we see death penalty cases starting up. As far as we know, the Miami Dade State attorney's office has given the challenge to Florida's laws a big yawn. 

The government can't fix potholes, and Florida prosecutors can't or won't read a petition for cert to see that the chances of the US Supreme Court upholding Florida's death penalty statute are slim to none. Why would the court grant cert in this case about a set of laws completely out of step with current law and the laws of other states? 

See You In Court. 

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

"Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return" (Genesis 3:19)

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

FLORIDA RELEASES 24 INMATES FROM DEATH ROW .....

That's how many death sentenced prisoners have had their death sentences overturned in just the past decade. In case you had any doubt, Florida leads the nation in this category.

But that hasn't stopped current Florida Governor Rick Scott from his own goal of becoming Number One. That is first on the list in the category of most executions during a Governor's term in office. Currently, that honor goes to Jeb Bush, who oversaw the execution of 21 death row inmates during his EIGHT years in office.

Scott seeks to break that record, but he is valiantly attempting to do so in half that time.

In Scott's first two and one half years in office, he signed only eight warrants.  But as re-election time continues to get closer, Scott's pen has had an infusion of ink. Starting in April of last year and continuing through this February 2014, a period of roughly ten months, Scott has penned his name to no less than 10 Death Warrants. The tenth, Paul Howell, was executed three weeks ago.  On Friday, Scott signed yet another Death Warrant, this time for prisoner Robert E. Hendrix. Baring a delay, Hendrix will meet his maker on April 23rd at 6:00 PM.

Much of this most recent pace in executions might also have something to do with a bill that Scott signed into law last June. That new law,  dubbed "The Timely Justice Act" by its proponents, requires governors to sign death warrants 30 days after the Florida Supreme Court certifies that an inmate has exhausted all legal appeals. Once a death warrant is signed, the new law requires the state to execute the defendant within six months.

There’s less time for inmates to prove their innocence, making it easier for the state to kill them.

It’s already easier to put someone to death in Florida. It’s the only state that requires a simple jury majority to sentence someone to death. Every other state besides Alabama requires a unanimous vote.  And it keeps getting worse. According to Slate, State Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero has seen “some of the worst lawyering” in death penalty cases.

Washington Post writes about "Florida's Gruesome Execution Theatre" here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/03/19/robert-henry-and-floridas-gruesome-execution-theater/

The Tampa Tribune writes about Scott and Executions here:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/gov-rick-scott-signs-bill-to-speed-up-executions-in-florida/2126764


With nine months remaining in Scott's first term, the record of 21 executions. is now within easy reach. Imagine what those numbers will look like if Scott is re-elected come November 2014.

CAPTAIN OUT ......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com

NO BOND FOR MEDINA

Execution: 
Florida executed another inmate Tuesday.  William Happ was executed for the 1986 murder of a young woman he met by happenstance at a convenience store in Crystal River. Here is the AP story. 

No Bond:
On Tuesday, Judge Colodny denied bond for Derek Medina, the man accused of killing his wife and then posting about it on Facebook. So far his prediction on Facebook that he was headed to prison for life or execution seems a pretty good one.
If you insist on wasting time, you can watch his confession. 

TO KILL OR NOT TO KILL; THAT IS THE QUESTION.

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

TO KILL OR NOT TO KILL; THAT IS THE QUESTION.

UPDATE:

Authorities said 59-year-old Larry Eugene Mann was pronounced dead at 7:19 p.m. Wednesday following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/10/larry-eugene-mann-execute_n_3056740.html

No. It's not from Hamlet.  And I'm certainly no Shakespeare; but that is the question of the day.  Today, after spending more than 32 years on Death Row, Larry Eugene Mann may actually meet his maker.

Printed below is the biography of the State v. Larry Eugene Mann.  What we need to be asking ourselves, as we occasionally do on the pages of this Blog, is whether Florida should still be in the business of execution?  What was the cost for the past 33 years of litigation; the trial attorneys; the appellate attorneys; CCRC attorneys; and all of the other costs associated with a case winding its way through the criminal justice system.  And what was the cost to the family of the victim in having to live out this nightmare, over and over again, for more than 32 years, before, finally, the State may actually succeed in sticking a needle into the arm of Mr. Mann, and killing him.

Here is the biography; (and it only takes us through 2003).  Please give us your thoughts.  But more importantly, please go one step further.  Engage yourselves in the system.  It is easy to sit idly by and curse the death penalty.  It is another thing to actually communicate your thoughts to one of the 160 elected representatives in our State Legislature.  It is only with engaged communication that we might ever see a change come to our State.

DC# 077663
DOB: 06/09/53

Sixth Judicial Circuit, Pinellas County, Case# 80-8741
Sentencing Judge: The Honorable Philip A. Federico
Attorneys, Trial: Susan F. Schaeffer & Patrick D. Doherty – Private
Attorney, Direct Appeal: David A. Davis – Assistant Public Defender
Attorney, Collateral Appeals: Marie-Louise Parmer & Leslie Scalley – CCRC-M

Date of Offense: 11/04/80

Date of Sentence: 03/26/81

Date of Resentence (I): 01/14/83

Date of Resentence (II): 03/02/90

Circumstances of the Offense:

At approximately 10:30 a.m. on 11/04/80, 10-year-old, Elisa Nelson was riding her bike to school. She was late for school because she had a dentist appointment that morning, and her mother had given her a note excusing her absence.

Elisa’s bicycle was found later that day in a ditch approximately one mile from Elisa’s school. A search party, which included police officers and community members, was initiated. Elisa’s body was found on 11/05/80.

Elisa died from a skull fracture possibly caused by a single blow to the head. A cement-encased steel pipe was found lying next to the body. There were two lacerations approximately 3.5 and 4.5 inches along the girl’s neck.

The medical examiner could not discern if the lacerations were made before or after the child’s death, but they were not the cause of death. There were no signs of molestation on the body.

The same day that Elisa disappeared, Larry Mann attempted to commit suicide by slashing both of his forearms. The police were summoned to help, and Mann stated to them that he had "done something stupid and needed help." Mann was taken to the hospital were the doctor ruled that Mann had made a serious attempt to end his life.

On 11/08/80, Mann asked his wife to retrieve his glasses from his 1957 Chevy pickup truck. Upon doing so, Mrs. Mann found the bloodstained note that Elisa’s mother had written to excuse her from school.

A friend of Mrs. Mann’s reported this finding to the police and that resulted in a search warrant of Mann’s truck and house. Inside the truck, a bloodstain was found with the same blood type as both Mann and Elisa. On 11/10/80, Mann was arrested.

Prior to the above incident, Mann had previously attempted suicide at least three or four times. Mann also has a history of pedophilia and psychotic depressions.

Trial Summary:

11/18/80 Defendant indicted on the following charges:

Count I: First-Degree Murder
Count II: Kidnapping

11/20/80 Defendant entered a written plea of not guilty

03/19/81 Defendant found guilty on both counts

03/20/81 A majority of the jury recommended the death penalty.

03/26/81 The defendant was sentenced as follows:

Count I: First-Degree Murder – Death
Count II: Kidnapping – 99 years to run consecutive to Count I

09/02/82 Trial remanded to Circuit Court for resentencing by FSC

01/14/83 Order denying advisory jury panel

01/14/83 Defendant resentenced as follows:

Count I: First-Degree Murder – Death
Count II: Kidnapping – 99 years to run consecutive to Count I

04/02/88 Trial remanded to Circuit Court for resentencing by the USCA 11^th Circuit

02/06/90 Upon advisory sentencing, the jury, by a 9-3 majority, voted for the death penalty.

03/02/90 Defendant was resentenced to death on Count I, First-Degree Murder.

Case Information

Mann filed a Direct Appeal to the Florida Supreme Court on 05/04/81. Mann contended that the trial court improperly allowed into evidence the bloodstains found in his truck due to the fact that the blood type matched both him and the victim.

The Court ruled that the trial court properly admitted this evidence and found the conviction free from substantive error. The conviction was affirmed. In regard to his sentencing, the Court found that the trial court improperly applied the aggravating factors of prior conviction of a felony involving violence and the homicide to have been committed in a cold, premeditated manner. The Court vacated the sentence and remanded the case to the trial court for a new sentencing proceeding without a jury.

Mann was resentenced to death by the Circuit Court on 01/14/83. He filed a Direct Appeal after resentencing to the Florida Supreme Court on 03/25/83. Mann contended that the Court’s original opinion barred the state from presenting additional evidence at the resentencing. The Court found no error and affirmed the sentence of death.

Mann filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court on 10/22/84. The petition was denied on 01/14/84.

Governor Graham signed a Death Warrant for Mann on 01/07/86. A 3.850 motion and a stay of execution were filed to the Circuit Court on 01/30/86. The motion and the stay of execution were denied on 01/31/86. On 01/31/86, Mann filed for a stay of execution pending the appeal on 01/31/86, the stay was denied on the same day.

On 02/01/86 Mann filed a 3.850 appeal, a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, and a stay of execution to the Florida Supreme Court. Mann’s main claim was ineffective trial counsel because of his attorney’s failure to object to statements made by the prosecutor during closing arguments of the penalty phase.

The Court ruled that these comments did not constitute a reversible error. The Court denied the habeas and the stay and affirmed the trial court’s denial of the 3.850 motion on 02/01/86. No rehearing was allowed and a mandate was issued on 02/10/86.

On 02/03/86, Mann filed a petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus with the United States District Court, Middle District. The District Court granted the stay of execution on 02/03/86, but denied the Habeas on 02/19/86.

On 03/19/86, Mann filed Habeas Appeal to the United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. Mann raised only one issue in reference to his conviction. He states that he was involuntarily absent from the jury’s presence when they were allowed to view the crime scene, which violated his rights under the 6^th, 8^th, and 14^th Amendments. The USCA found this to be a harmless error and denied all relief as to his conviction.

In regard to his sentence, Mann raised five issues. Three did not entitle Mann to relief, but the claim that the court diminished the jury’s sense of responsibility in imposing the death sentence entitled Mann to relief in the form of a resentencing proceeding. Due to this finding, the USCA stated that the need to render a comment on the fifth issue was moot. The sentence was reversed and the case was remanded to the circuit court for a new jury sentencing proceeding on 05/14/87.

On 09/10/87 the previous opinion was vacated and a rehearing en banc was scheduled. The case was reheard en banc on 12/14/87, and a new opinion was issued on 04/02/88 again reversing the sentence and remanding the case to the circuit court for re-sentencing.

The State filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court on 06/19/88. The petition was denied on 03/06/89. On 02/06/90, a jury recommended the death penalty by majority. Mann was resentenced to death on Count I, Murder in the First Degree on 03/02/90.

Mann filed a Direct Appeal to the Florida Supreme Court on 05/04/90. The Court affirmed the sentence of death on 04/02/92. The rehearing was denied and a revised opinion was issued on 08/27/92. The Court again affirmed the sentence of death. A mandate was issued on 09/28/92.

Mann filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court on 11/25/92. The petition was denied on 01/19/93.

A 3.850 Motion was filed to the Circuit Court on 04/28/94. The motion was denied in part and an evidentiary hearing was granted. The motion was denied on 03/27/97. A 3.850 Appeal was filed in the Florida Supreme Court on 04/30/97.

The appeal was dismissed and CCRC was directed to file an amended 3.850 motion within ten days on 06/25/97. An amended 3.850 Motion was filed to the Circuit Court on 07/07/97. The motion was granted in part and an evidentiary hearing was granted on 07/29/98. The evidentiary hearing was held on 12/01/98 and the motion was denied on 01/13/99. A 3.850 Appeal was filed in the Florida Supreme Court on 02/15/99. Mann raised ten issues.

The Court found five to be procedurally barred and the remaining issues without merit. On 09/28/00, they affirmed the trial court’s denial of the 3.850 Motion. The rehearing was denied on 10/31/00, and the mandate was issued on 11/27/00.

Mann filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus on 12/20/00 to the Florida Supreme Court. The State claimed that the Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.140 bars Mann’s Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus. The Court did not bar the petition under Rule 9.140, but stated that as of 01/01/02, all petitions for extraordinary relief must be filed simultaneously with the initial brief appealing the denial of a rule 3.850 Motion.

The Court accepted the Petition and addressed Mann’s five issues. The claims raised were either without merit, rejected, or procedurally barred; therefore, the Court denied the petition on 07/12/01. The rehearing was denied on 09/05/01.

Mann filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court on 11/28/01. The petition was denied on 06/28/02.

On 08/09/02, Mann filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus to the United States District Court, Middle District. It was administratively closed on 08/16/02 due to pending cases in the Circuit Court. The case was reopened on 11/18/04. The petition was amended on 01/18/05.

Mann filed a 3.850 Appeal to the Florida Supreme Court on 03/17/03. The Court affirmed the trial court’s denial of Mann’s 3.850 Motion.

 

CAPTAIN OUT .........

captain4justice@gmail.com

 

BLASTOFF - 50 YEARS AGO TODAY

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
(Thank you to Rumpole for permitting this to be reposted this afternoon. My apologies to our readers for posting two posts on the same feature - but there is a slightly different slant to my post. I also have posted some new information on Elections & JNC appointments below).

50 YEARS AGO TODAY ......








..... Astronaut John Glenn climbed into his Friendship 7 space capsule atop an Atlas rocket at Cape Canaveral, blasted off, and became the first American to orbit the Earth.


Sometimes I think we forget about these monumental accomplishments in American history. Our children attending elementary, middle school and high school get little in the areas of history and civics. I would guess that if they were asked, "Who is John Glenn", less than 10% would have a clue. Sad state of our educational system, here in Florida, and all around the country. But our Republican presidential hopefuls will surely make the inability to obtain birth control a much higher priority than teaching about history or civics, if any of them are elected President this November.


And while we are talking politics, did you happen to read your local newspaper this weekend? The Herald invited former justice of the Florida Supreme Court Raoul Cantero and Mark Schlakman, a senior program director for the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at FSU to write an OP ED about the Death Penalty.


The piece is entitled "Unanimous Jury Verdict A Must For Florida's Justice System". It is well written and it is speaking to deaf ears if it was meant to reach most of our elected legislators in Tallahassee. While they spend their time this session giving tax breaks to businesses that hire only non-union workers and redraw the geographic lines for the next decade of voting districts to make them "fairer", they ignore the two simple facts that speak loud and clear on this issue:


1. Of the 33 death penalty states, Florida is the only one that does not require unanimous verdicts. Even Georgia and Texas demand a 12-0 vote.


2. Since 1973, Florida leads the country in reversing more death sentences than any other state.


You can read the entire Op Ed here:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/18/2647451/florida-ignores-unanimous-jury.html


We hope everyone enjoyed their President's Day Weekends. For those of you youngins', we used to celebrate our 16th President's birthday, Abe Lincoln, on February 12th, and our 1st President's birthday, George Washington, on February 22nd. Congress finally changed that in 1971 when they decided to move most federal holidays to Mondays. They chose the third Monday in February to honour our first President, but rejected the part of the legislation that would name the holiday President's Day. Instead, today we actually honor President George Washington's Birthday. Of course, our retailers didn't see it that way, and over the years, they continually called it President's Day, until the name stuck.

On the Election & Appointment news of the day:

Circuit Court - Group 49

As a result of Richard Hersch's appointment last week by Governor Scott, Group 49 found itself with only one candidate: Victor De Yurre. That was until County Court Group 28 candidate Teresa Pooler, (sister of Katie Pooler), withdrew from that race and filed in the Group 49 race. So, for now, County Court Group 28 is left with lone candidate Tanya Brinkley.

JNC: Circuit Court .....

The JNC has received applications from 16 attorneys and three County Court Judges for the open seat of Judge Julio Jimenez. The shock is from who is NOT on the list. After applying for what must have been a dozen or more times, and being nominated by the JNC to the Governor's office a dozen or more times, Judge Deborah White-Labora has not applied for this seat. Judge White-Labora told me last month that she was done, for now, applying, if she did not get the appointment that recently went to Richard Hersch. Can you blame her?!

Also missing from the applicants: Miguel de la O, who was another one of the six finalists in the Hersch group from last month. De la O is currently a candidate for Circuit Court Judge running against Greer Elaine Wallace in Group 42.

Those on the list include:

Paul Aiello, Steven P. Befera, Manuel L. Casabielle, Judson L. Cohen, Michelle Ashby Delancy, Ariana Fajardo, Alan S. Fine, Andrew S. Hague, Victor J. Hayes, Lisa Lehner, Christine Lopez-Acevedo, Louis V. Martinez, Cristina Miranda, Jonathan Parker, Bonnie Riley, Vivian Rosado, Alan D. Sackrin, Rodney Smith, Veronica A. Xiques

JNC: County Court .....

Interviewing this Friday, February 24th, for the open County Court seat of Norma Lindsey:

Veronica Adriana Xiques, Rodolfo A. Ruiz, Vivian Rosado, Yadira Pedraza, Jonathan Parker, Gordon Charles Murray, Sr., Jonathan Meltz, Steven Lieberman, Carlos Guzman, Vincent Peter Farina, Ivonne Cuesta, Judson L. Cohen, Manuel Casabielle, Tanya Brinkley, Christopher Andrew Angell, David Alschuler .

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