For the Defense Episode 5: H.T. Smith for Aubrey Arthur Livingston

This week in For the Defense, we have the wonderful H.T. Smith, a criminal defense lawyer, activist, and founding director of the trial advocacy program at FIU Law School.

In this episode, H.T. discusses what it means to be a criminal defense lawyer in the context of an unspeakably grisly first-degree murder case in which his client, Aubrey Arthur Livingston, was accused of participating in the killing of five people, including two small children.

H.T. tried the case before a Broward County, Florida judge who appeared to be looking forward to sending Smith's client to "Old Sparky," the electric chair in Florida that was used to inflict the ultimate punishment. Smith fought two trials and an appeal all the way to the Florida Supreme Court as the only barrier between his client and electrocution. 

You can catch this episode and all episodes on our podcast website here. It seems like Apple Podcast is the most popular platform, which is available here. All other platforms can be accessed on here.

I'm extremely grateful that the podcast is starting to gain traction, which is because of your great feedback and comments (please continue to subscribe and leave comments!). A few days ago, CourtTV picked it up and did this segment. Check it out!

 

Thanks again for your continued support of this project.

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11th Circuit in 2-1 decision strikes down conversion therapy ban

 Here's the opinion, which was written by Judge Grant and joined by Judge Lagoa.  Judge Martin dissented. (Judge Rosenberg was the district judge.)

The Sun-Sentinel covers it here:

A federal appeals court struck down Boca Raton’s ban on conversion therapy for gay adolescents struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, calling the ban an infringement on the First Amendment rights of the teens and the counselors who try to treat them.

Licensed family therapists Robert Otto and Judy Hamilton sued the city for the right to talk to their juvenile clients about conversion if the clients had “unwanted” attraction to members of the same gender or “confusion” about their gender identity.

The city’s ordinance prohibited conversion therapy as harmful to the health and emotional development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other youth. A district court upheld the law, but Otto and Hamilton appealed, backed by religious-liberty advocates at Liberty Counsel.

A three-judge panel at the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned the earlier decision by a 2-1 vote. “We understand and appreciate that the therapy is highly controversial,” wrote Judge Britt Grant. “But the First Amendment has no carveout for controversial speech. We hold that the challenged ordinances violate the First Amendment because they are content-based regulations of speech that cannot survive strict scrutiny.”

Luckily Rudy Giuliani wasn't arguing the case as he could not answer questions about strict scrutiny last week.

Hysterical video from fed judges in Texas

$20k a day.

 That’s what Rudy G. is apparently asking for from the Trump campaign.  Sounds a lot like what the drug lawyers were asking for in the 80s and 90s...

From The NY Times:

Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has helped oversee a string of failed court challenges to President Trump’s defeat in the election, asked the president’s campaign to pay him $20,000 a day for his legal work, multiple people briefed on the matter said.

The request stirred opposition from some of Mr. Trump’s aides and advisers, who appear to have ruled out paying that much, and it is unclear how much Mr. Giuliani will ultimately be compensated.

Since Mr. Giuliani took over management of the legal effort, Mr. Trump has suffered a series of defeats in court and lawyers handling some of the remaining cases have dropped out.

A $20,000-a-day rate would have made Mr. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who has been Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer for several years, among the most highly compensated lawyers anywhere.

In local news, the 11th Circuit has been conducting Zoom arguments all week. You can watch them live-streamed from a link on the website.  It’s a great opportunity to see appellate arguments.  I presented oral argument today on Zoom and did one a few months ago (via phone, not Zoom).  Zoom is definitely much better than phone.  And although I really dislike Zoom for some district court proceedings like sentencings or evidentiary hearings, Zoom seems to work well for appellate arguments.  There’s nothing like doing it in the courtroom and I hope we go back to it soon, but appeal by Zoom isn’t so bad. It’s certainly a lot less stressful. 

For the Defense, Episode 4: Marty Weinberg for Bill Moran

Episode 4 of For the Defense is out. In this episode, I interview Marty Weinberg, one of the great criminal defense lawyers of our day, about his representation of Bill Moran, who was accused of being in-house counsel to the Cali Cartel. I think you'll enjoy hearing Marty tell the story of this insane only-in-Miami federal trial where prosecutors weren't satisfied with going after the leaders of the Cali Cartel; they wanted the criminal defense lawyers as well. This episode is especially appropriate for this blog as the trial occurred here in the Southern District of Florida before William Hoeveler. The prosecutors were Ed Ryan and Bill Pearson.  In addition to Weinberg, Moran was represented by the great Albert Krieger.  Co-defendant lawyer Mike Abbell was represented by the Srebnick brothers.

You can catch this episode and all episodes on our podcast website here. Last week's episode with Tom Mesereau made some news with his description of what it took to get Jay Leno to testify in the Michael Jackson trial, as did the episode with Donna Rotunno (Harvey Weinstein's lawyer) about being referred to as the anti-Gloria Allred.

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Thank you! --DOM