"It's not our job to educate the public. Our job is to decide vitally important cases under the Constitution."
That's what he told a group of high school students in response to a question about why there were no cameras in the High Court.
Is it me or isn't that a very self-important, arrogant and obnoxious answer? I like the Chief Justice, but I disagree with him strongly on this point. How does educating the public at all take away from deciding important cases?
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
Friday, March 07, 2008
"If the state court is not sensible enough to dismiss this piece of shit, it will end up in federal court."
That was Fred Haddad about the Florida Bar complaint against attorney Sean Conway for his comments on a blog about Judge Cheryl Aleman.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Why aren't there more self surrenders?
Brian Tannebaum has this interesting post on self surrendering defendants to face charges. He argues that defense lawyers should be able to voluntarily surrender a defendant when that person and the lawyer know about the charges in advance:
The purpose of an arrest is to take the defendant into custody and present them before a judge or have them bonded out immediately. It's not a damn prize or game.And I'm tired of prosecutors telling me "I'm not going to interfere with their desire to arrest your client." What are you all so afraid of? Tell the officers/agents, I know this defense attorney, he keeps his word, let his client surrender. If they say no, so be it.
This issue actually comes up quite frequently in this District. Wouldn't it save everyone a great deal of time and resources if there was more cooperation on self surrendering a defendant? What say you SDFLA readers?
The purpose of an arrest is to take the defendant into custody and present them before a judge or have them bonded out immediately. It's not a damn prize or game.And I'm tired of prosecutors telling me "I'm not going to interfere with their desire to arrest your client." What are you all so afraid of? Tell the officers/agents, I know this defense attorney, he keeps his word, let his client surrender. If they say no, so be it.
This issue actually comes up quite frequently in this District. Wouldn't it save everyone a great deal of time and resources if there was more cooperation on self surrendering a defendant? What say you SDFLA readers?
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Joel DeFabio -- back to back Not Guilty verdicts
Hot off his win in the Liberty City 7 case, Joel DeFabio won last night in the Haitian slave case. In both, his client was the only full acquittal.
Here's the Herald article and the Sun-Sentinel article.
ADDED: From the comments, Rumpole jokes:
One more NG within the calendar year and the DOJ will have no choice but to convene a grand jury on obstruction of justice charges. Plus there must be some guidelines enhancement for winning a case and pissing the US attorneys off.
Here's the Herald article and the Sun-Sentinel article.
ADDED: From the comments, Rumpole jokes:
One more NG within the calendar year and the DOJ will have no choice but to convene a grand jury on obstruction of justice charges. Plus there must be some guidelines enhancement for winning a case and pissing the US attorneys off.
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