Ben Kuehne to receive award from FACDL-Miami this weekend

Saturday night the Florida Association of Criminal Defense lawyer will be having its annual banquet. Ben Kuehne will be receiving the Daniel S. Pearson-Harry W. Prebish Founder's Award, FACDL's highest honor. The Jose Padilla defense team will be receiving the Rodney Thaxton "Against All Odds" award, and Judge Steve Leifman will receive the Gerald Kogan Judicial Distinction Award.

Julie Kay writes about it here.

More Awards

Last night the Miami Chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers had its annual banquet (this year's was at the JW Marriot on Brickell). Great turnout to honor Kathy Williams, Scott Fingerhut, Paul Rashkind, and Judge Joseph Farina. Each of the honorees gave incredible speeches. (I was president of FACDL-Miami this year; Barry Wax is taking over.)

It's been a very difficult couple of weeks for the criminal defense lawyer and criminal defendant in state court. No more rebuttal close for the defense, and court appointed funding for conflict cases (their equivalent to CJA lawyers) is no more. Instead, there will be an underfunded second public defender's office to handle conflicts. It's a total disaster. Most of the speakers discussed these recent events.

Federal sightings: Judge Moreno, Judge Brown, U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, and lots of federal PDs.