UPDATE: As first reported on @Davidovalle305 Officer Jonathan Aledda was convicted Monday evening of the misdemeanor of culpable negligence and aquitted of all other felonies in the re-trial of the shooting and death of an autistic man. The first trial ended in a hung jury. Reid Ruben and Don Horn for the prosecution and Jay Kolsky and Doug Hartman for the defense. We blogged about the first trial here.
https://justicebuilding.blogspot.com/2019/03/state-v-officer-aledda.html
Judge Alan Fine presided over both trials.
The NACDL's motto is "Liberty's last Champion".
Criminal defense attorneys defend the un-defendable. Before they get to our client they have to get though us. We honor attorneys with the John Adams award named after our second president who, as an attorney, represented British Soldiers who fired into a crowd in Boston.
We defend people charged with unspeakable crimes.
One of our brethern stepped into the breach in 1996 and represented Richard Jewel who was accused by the FBI of planting the bomb at the 1996 summer olympics in Atlanta. Jewel fit the classic profile of a bomber. A loner, estranged, and a classic under-achiever. The world recoiled at Jewel's cowardly act. He was universally reviled and condemend. And he was innocent. As the FBI later admitted, Eric Rudolph, an abortion opponent, was the bomber.
Much of what we do involves a system rife with racial bias. From police officers who stop and arrest (and sometimes shoot and kill) young black men who have done nothing wrong, to prosecutors who still systemically exclude African Americans from jury service, racism still stains our system of "justice". We are not so far removed from a time when a small heroic band of lawyers like Thurgood Marshall raced around the South defending African Americans in small towns where trials were shams.
So what do we do about this?
Comments?
We neglected to report that among the mid-season judicial moves, we missed the return of Judge Pooler to our humble REGJB. There is nothing better than arguing a motion before the judge, and then getting a piece of candy from her chambers afterwards.
The REGJB used to be a warm and friendly place to work. Judges held cooking contests in their chambers with prosecutors, defense attorneys and staff vying to make the best cookies or lasagna. Now the building is more like the halls of Congress- two sides who barely get along and speak over each other.
OFFICER ALEDDA ROUND TWO:
Having nearly lost their entire case against Officer Aledda with an acquittal on one count and a jury hung 5-1 for acquittal on all counts, the Dade County State Attorneys office has made the "wise" and "legal" decision to re-try Officer Aledda.
This is an outrage. The community has fairly well spoken on this and enough is enough. It is very difficult and trying to go through the criminal trial process, and doing so as a police officer-not to mention one with an infant at home- is too much a price that the prosecution is seeking Officer Aledda to pay. He made a split second decision that night - it turns out to be a wrong decision- but his actions were not criminal- they were not close to being criminal. It is significant to note that the jury acquitted the officer of the culpable negligence count of shooting at the autistic man - which means they found the discharge of the weapon justifiable.
This is not only a disappointing decision by State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle and her office, but a wrong one.
UPDATE IV NOT GUILTY ON ONE COUNT...HUNG ON THREE OTHER COUNTS...more to come.
UPDATE III: FRIDAY MORNING- The jury deliberated Thursday night for a few hours, which we view as a positive sign for the defense. The state has not yet asked for additonal rebuttal this morning, but you never know. The legal community is buzzing with the decision to keep ASA Reid Ruben on the bench.
Rumpole says verdict by 1pm. Antyhing past that you are looking a a jury that rhymes with "sung". The herald's intrepid crime reporter will be tweeting all the action during deliberations
@davidovalle305. Some possible tweets:
"jury arrives...three have coffee -three have tea. People view that as a bad sign"; "jurror shows up wearing MAGA hat. Prosecutors frowning."
and things of that nature.
UPDATE II: Kolsky finished the defense closing and then Don Horn rose to give the prosecution's final closing. With all due respect to Mr. Horn but keeping Reid Ruben out of closing is like keeping Lebron James on the bench for the last quarter of game 7. It's a mistake to leave your best player out of it. A tactical error and we shall see how this plays out.
No doubt we are headed for a Friday jury verdict unless the jury wants to work tonight, and if they do that would be a very positive sign for the defense in our opinion and we are more knowledgeable than most.
UPDATE: Perhaps showing the rust, ASA Don Horn closed the state's first closing argument by asking the jury to find the defendant guilty of "attempted murder". Uhho. Aledda is charged with attempted manslaughter. Defense objected and Horn apologized.
Next up: Doug Hartman for the defense in closing.
There was a bit of legal maneuvering this afternoon in courtroom 4-1 in the trial of officer Aledda charged with attempted manslaughter in the firing of his weapon at an autistic young man.
After both sides rested Wednesday, the prosecution after a good night's rest decided to call a rebuttal witness. What were they rebutting after they rested? The negative press coverage.
That being done, it was Chief ASA Don Horn, dusting off his trial suit, for the state on the first closing argument. You can follow all the details on @Davidovalle305 's twitter feed.
The weakness of the prosecution's case is evident in this: Horn told the jury that Officer Aledda wasn't a bad man, he just did a bad thing on the day of the shooting. The jury's sympathies will be with the officer on this one we think.
After Horn concludes, the chatter is Jay Kolsky, an old pro who is a former prosecutor and PD will close for the defense. Kolsky is trying the case with frequent police lawyer Doug Hartman.
Then perhaps Reid Ruben, who we have opined in this pages previously is as good as it gets for the SAO, will get rebuttal and then the jury will be charged. Once again, very experienced lawyers have disregarded Rumpole's #1 rule for jury trials: AVOID FRIDAY VERDICTS.
Even so, the courthouse rumor is that the officer is ahead on the judges' scorecards and the state needs a knockout punch in closing.
Stay tuned. Bulletins as proceedings warrant.
