Tom Meeks receives Court's "Unsung Hero" award

This week, the Southern District of Florida bench awarded Tom Meeks the "Unsung Hero" award for his work on the local rules committee. Congratulations! Last year Brian Spector received it. Here's a picture of Meeks giving his acceptance speech. (That's Judge Palermo's head on the right.)

Congrats to the 3 who made the cut

A reliable source tells me that the Federal JNC will recommend Jerald Bagley, John O'Sullivan, and Bob Scola to the Senators. Congratulations to those three!

Interesting facts: all three are judges, two state and one federal magistrate. Bagley and Scola were finalists for the last seat as well. Kathy Williams is still waiting to be confirmed for that seat...

UPDATE-- Kendall Coffey sent this email late last night to the 16 applicants:

On behalf of the Southern District Conference of the Florida Federal Judicial Nominating Commission, I want to express our appreciation for the time you spent with us during your interview today. You are to be commended for your impressive presentation and qualifications as well as for your service to the public and to our profession. Because of the high quality of the applicants, these were truly difficult decisions. As a result of the deliberations that followed the interviews, the District Conference members have selected the following finalists whose names will be forwarded to Senator Nelson and Senator LeMieux in accordance with Rule 27 of the Florida Federal JNC Rules of Procedure:

Jerald Bagley

John J. O’Sullivan

Robert N. Scola, Jr.


Again, we are grateful for the opportunity to have met with you and truly appreciate your participation in this important process.

Kendall Coffey

Good luck to the applicants for Judge Huck's seat

The JNC is conducting interviews all day today. Good luck to all 16.

Justice Stevens weekend

Justice Stevens was everywhere this weekend. In the NY Times, discussing the death penalty:

In 1976, just six months after he joined the Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens voted to reinstate capital punishment after a four-year moratorium. With the right procedures, he wrote, it is possible to ensure “evenhanded, rational and consistent imposition of death sentences under law.”

In 2008, two years before he announced his retirement, Justice Stevens reversed course and in a concurrence said that he now believed the death penalty to be unconstitutional.
But the reason for that change of heart, after more than three decades on the court and some 1,100 executions, has in many ways remained a mystery, and now Justice Stevens has provided an explanation.

In a detailed, candid and critical essay to be published this week in The New York Review of Books, he wrote that personnel changes on the court, coupled with “regrettable judicial activism,” had created a system of capital punishment that is shot through with racism, skewed toward conviction, infected with politics and tinged with hysteria.
The essay is remarkable in itself. But it is also a sign that at 90, Justice Stevens is intent on speaking his mind on issues that may have been off limits while he was on the court.

The whole review by Justice Stevens is worth a read.

Stevens was also on 60 Minutes:



It's amazing to watch him -- he still seems young and vibrant. I didn't know that his father was convicted and that an appellate court reversed the conviction. He discusses how that impacted him as a kid and as a judge. He also was at the game where Babe Ruth called the shot, and he talks about that as well. Great stuff.

UPDATE -- Rumpole has more on the Stevens interview here.

Happy Thanksgiving pardons?

While President Obama pardons a turkey today, he has yet to pardon one human being! On a lighter note, this video is making the rounds again:



Yikes!

In any event, happy turkey day to you all. We have a lot to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving

Most people emailing me this link about the boy who was charged with mutilating and killing cats who was cleared today are saying something like: "He has a lot to be thankful for! They dismissed today."

This kid's life has been ruined by these charges. I think those of us involved in the criminal justice system sometimes forget how much the fact of being charged really affects someone's life. The prosecutors ended up doing the right thing, but now what? How does Tyler Weinman get his life back? He was in high school when he got charged...

Here's the Herald article:

Prosecutors on Wednesday dropped their case against accused serial cat killer Tyler Weinman after two scientific experts determined that an animal, not the teen, was to blame for a string of grisly feline mutilations in South Miami-Dade last year.

That means Tyler Weinman, 19, is now a free man.

``Our job is to seek the truth and the truth is that this was done by an animal predator, not by a human being,'' Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle said Wednesday.

Police and prosecutors -- who initially relied on the opinions of Miami-Dade's Animal Services department -- built a circumstantial and highly publicized case in the mutilations that terrorized pet owners across the upscale cities of Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay.

Weinman was initially accused of slaying 19 cats in South Miami-Dade, was faced a slew of burglary and cruelty to animal felonies.

``I'm so happy right now,'' said defense attorney David Macey. ``Vindication. I'm thrilled. And Tyler is elated that justice has prevailed.''

No DNA linked Weinman to eight preserved animal carcasses and finally, a defense forensic veterinarian concluded that an animal was to blame for the killings. Two state experts agreed.

``They peeled back underneath the skin and found puncture wounds and that was the end of the case,'' Fernández Rundle said. ``This is a classic case of scientific evidence trumping a circumstantial case.''

Kimba Wood is cool

Check out this motion and Judge Wood's awesome response.

Courtesy of the WSJ Law Blog:

The Manhattan lawyer recently asked New York federal judge Kimba Wood to grant him a day’s reprieve in a criminal trial to attend the bris of his grandson. Epstein’s daughter has not yet given birth — so he doesn’t yet know the sex of the baby. But Epstein wanted to give Judge Wood ample notice to consider his request, given that his daughter’s due date is Dec. 3, smack in the middle of the scheduled trial.
So Epstein was stuck in the slightly awkward position of asking Judge Wood for a day off if, in fact, the baby turns out to be a boy. If it’s a girl, well, no bris, no day off needed.

Wrote Epstein...:

Should the child be a girl, not much will happen in the way of public
celebration. Some may even be disappointed, but will do their best to conceal
this by saying, “as long as it’s a healthy baby.” . . . However, should the baby
be a boy, then hoo hah! Hordes of friends and family will arrive . . . for
the joyous celebration . . . known as the bris. . . . My presence at the bris is
not strictly commanded, although my absence will never be forgotten by those
that matter.

Judge Wood, in a note written at the bottom of the letter, granted the request. But she did Epstein one better. Wrote Wood:

Mr. Epstein will be permitted to attend the bris, in the joyous event that
a son is born. But the Court would like to balance the scales. If a daughter is
born, there will be a public celebration in Court, with readings from poetry
celebrating girls and women.

Federal JNC to interview all 16 applicants (updated)

I have it on good authority that all 16 applicants will be interviewed on November 30. I wonder if we can get Dore to live blog the interviews.

UPDATE -- Confirmed. See here. The 16 interviews start and end with Magistrates (Seltzer & O'Sullivan). Only a 40 minute lunch!

One commenter told me: "There are more JNC members than applicants!"