1. Ken Jenne's days in prison. (via Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel). From Dan Christensen: Once Broward's most powerful politician, ex-Sheriff Ken Jenne now spends his days raising vegetables in the garden of a federal prison camp in rural Virginia.
Jenne, convicted of corruption last fall, talked briefly about his new duties in a three-hour deposition taken six weeks ago in a federal civil rights lawsuit in which he's a defendant.
...''I work in what is called the garden planting various vegetables,'' Jenne, 61, told Fort Lauderdale lawyer Barbara Heyer.
2. Prosecutors object to Joe Cool polygraph. (via Sun-Sentinel):
Federal prosecutors are fighting to make sure jurors never hear that one of the suspects in the murders of four people at sea passed two lie detector tests saying he did not take part in killing any of the crew members on the Joe Cool.Guillermo Zarabozo, 20, of Hialeah and Kirby Archer, 36, of Strawberry, Ark., who were passengers on the boat's ill-fated charter voyage in September, are charged with four counts of first degree murder and could face the death penalty. Their trial is expected to begin this fall.Zarabozo's lawyers say his favorable polygraph results should be allowed as evidence because they corroborate Zarabozo's version of events--that he was lured onto the boat under false pretenses by Archer and did not know anything illegal was going to happen until Archer fired the fatal shots.At a hearing in Miami federal court Wednesday, prosecutor Karen Gilbert said the polygraph evidence should not be allowed because it is not reliable and could have too much influence on jurors.
U.S. District Judge Paul Huck said he would rule after government officials conduct a separate polygraph exam of Zarabozo--a procedure defense lawyers said they welcomed.
The SDFLA Blog is dedicated to providing news and notes regarding federal practice in the Southern District of Florida. The New Times calls the blog "the definitive source on South Florida's federal court system." All tips on court happenings are welcome and will remain anonymous. Please email David Markus at dmarkus@markuslaw.com
1 comment:
If the polygraph is not an effective crime detection technique, why are there certified FBI polygraph examiners? Why are taxpayers paying for federal polygraph examiners? On the contrary, DOJ used the polygraph to solve the 1976 murder of Joseph "The Animal" Barboza, which resulted in the conviction of many top Mafia figures in Massachusetts.
Barboza was an uncorroborated accomplice, who framed my client, Louie Greco, convicted in 1968 on Barboza's testimony and died in a Massachusetts prison in 1995. Greco was in Florida when the Massachusetts murder was committed and everybody knew it. Prosecuting authorities had Greco's polygraph, but blocked a polygraph of Barboza, who recanted his testimony, claiming they would do it a later date. It never happened.
Shortly after Greco's conviction, according to deposition testimony, former FBI agent Dennis Condon joked, "I wonder how Louie likes going from Florida to death row and he wasn't even there [the scene of the murder]."
I believe that the prosecutor's opposition to the polygraph is another example of an ambitious government lawyer's desire to win at all costs instead of searching for the truth. Aren't prosecutors quasi-judicial authorities? Is it about doing justice or is it about winning?
John Cavicchi,
Boston
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