FIU prof/wife plead NG and Herald writer pleads guilty

Could the FIU prof and his wife accused of being Cuban spies be headed to trial? Sounds like it might be heading that way. Not because of the not guilty pleas -- that happens in every case -- but because the lawyers' comments seem to suggest a fight is ahead. Read here and here.

In other news, Herald writer Ana Veciana-Suarez pleaded guilty to a contempt of court charge for not disclosing her father's criminal history during jury selection in a 2003 civil trial .

2 votes for dumping peremptory challenges

Yesterday the Supreme Court decided unanimously a habeas case, Rice v. Collins, which in the scheme of High Court rulings didn't shake the legal establishment. What's extremely interesting about this case is the concurrence by Justice Breyer re-affirming his position that we should do away with peremptory challenges altogether. I wrote an op-ed for the Miami Herald over the summer supporting this position. At the time, Breyer was alone on the Court in his belief that the only way to do away with discrimination in jury selection was to eliminate the peremptory challenge. He picked up a vote yesterday with Justice Souter who joined in the opinion. It looks like this idea is starting to pick up some momentum. The last time this topic was brought up on the blog, it brought about a lot of discussion. Any new thoughts?

Blog coverage

Blawg Review #40 picks up our Padilla coverage here.

What is the future of federal sentencing?

That is the debate topic at Legal Affairs. The debate is between Doug Berman and Frank Bowman.

State of the blog and Poll update

I wanted to thank all of you for reading and for the nice comments and emails you have sent to me about the blog. 2006 has started off well for SDFLA. We have topped 10,000 total hits and are now averaging more than 175 hits a day. The blog has been cited to by some of the bigger sites around -- TalkLeft, SCOTUSBlog, and HowAppealing. And we have added a blogger, Marc David Seitles, bringing our total to 3 (anon has been awfully quiet lately).

An update on the funniest Southern District of Florida judge -- Judge Moreno is leading in the polls by a lot. He currently has better than a 2-1 advantage over Judge Ungaro. A close third is Judge Palermo.

Blogging from me will be slow this weekend as I'm on vacation (the last time I'll be able to get away before baby #2 is born and before I start a six week trial in Savannah Georgia). Thanks again.