GRAND JURIES ARE WHERE POLITICAL CASES GO TO DIE

BREAKING: Long time Circuit Court judge Scott Silverman resigned today. The Captain broke the  news in the comments section. 


The old wise guy phrase our clients used to say when planning a sit down was:  "if you're indicted, you're invited".  George Zimmerman will not be invited because the State Attorney investigating the case has said that she will not be convening a grand jury, so he will not be indicted.  


What does this mean? Second degree murder or manslaughter. Our thoughts are manslaughter, but we admittedly know very little about this case.  Odds are it will probably be a second. First is clearly a reach. Monday night on CNN's Piers Morgan show  Roy Black opined "In Florida the grand jury is where political cases go to die." Mr. Black further agreed with Professor Dershowitz, who was also on the show, that the news is not good for Zimmerman and the lack of a grand jury  probably means he will be charged. 


Meanwhile George Zimmerman has launched his own website to raise funds for a defense. This case is spinning out of control and the publicity will not be good for either side. 


RODERICK VEREEN: Ace criminal defense lawyer, started out in the Federal PDs office  US Attorneys Office (as pointed out to us by an alert reader) , of late has a private practice and handles the Jimmy Ryce cases for RC3 is seriously considering  running against State Attorney Kathy Fernandez Rundle. This is a tough one. Fernandez-Rundle has done an admirable job. Her job is not an easy one and she negotiates between daily land mines of varied political interests and police departments that range from very competent to criminally incompetent. And yet Rod Vereen is a great lawyer and would bring a great new perspective to the job. We as citizens of Miami can be proud that two distinguished candidates are vying to serve. Rod has until April 20, 2012 to make his decision. You cannot yet email him at "runRodrun"dot com, but that piece of political advice (it would be a great email address) comes free of charge. 


What's the first thing you would change if you became Dade State Attorney? For us the answer is simple- we would prohibit a prosecutor from saying in open court "I need to go speak to a supervisor." You hire a lawyer, you pay a lawyer, let them be a lawyer. 


VIVA FIDEL! Query: If you're the Hispanic manager of the Miami Marlins and your team has a brand spanking new ballpark, what's the very worst way to drum up local support for your team? Praise Fidel Castro. Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen did just that this past weekend. 


ICEBERG! Did the once in a thousand years alignment of the sun, moon and earth, which caused unusual high tides, help sink the Titanic? Maybe. 

HEALTH CARE: As we speak Nino Scalia is dismissively waving a high court hand and muttering "health care smelth care" and Clarence Thomas is nodding enthusiastically while saying nothing. 
But did you know that the SCOTUS Blog reports that between 1832 and 1956 in at least three quarters of the presidential elections a supreme court justice tried to wangle a presidential or vice presidential nomination?