Wednesday, June 07, 2017

Candidate list for U.S. Attorney expands (UPDATED)

UPDATE -- Dave Aronberg has pulled his name from consideration.

In an interesting turn, the search for U.S. Attorney has expanded to 6 candidates. The list, according to the Herald, is:
▪ Roy Altman, 35, worked as a federal prosecutor for six years, handling hundreds of criminal cases, including the conviction of a postal worker’s killer. In early 2014, he became the office’s deputy chief of special prosecutions, focusing on the sexual exploitation of children and federal violent crimes. A native Spanish speaker, he attended Columbia University and Yale Law School before clerking for an influential federal appeals court judge, Stanley Marcus. Altman, a partner in the prominent Miami law firm Podhurst Orseck, is considered among the favored candidates.

▪ John Couriel, 39, prosecuted economic and major criminal cases at the U.S. attorney’s office before joining the law firm Kobre Kim as a partner. He also ran twice unsuccessfully for the Florida Legislature. A native Spanish speaker, Couriel graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Couriel was considered a front runner but lost ground after Trump’s advisers learned he voted for Bush in the GOP presidential primary and predicted Democrat Hillary Clinton would win his Republican district by “quite a bit.”

▪ Jon Sale, 73, is a former federal prosecutor in New York and Miami who co-chairs the Broad and Cassel law firm’s white-collar defense and compliance practice. He is also a close friend of Trump confidant Rudy Giuliani. Sale, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and NYU Law School, was also an assistant special prosecutor for the Justice Department in the Watergate case that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Sale, widely respected by colleagues and judges, could emerge as Trump’s pick.

▪ Dave Aronberg, 46, is the Palm Beach County state attorney. A Democrat, Aronberg declined to prosecute Trump’s former presidential campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, for battery in April. Aronberg is also a former state senator. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Despite a being high-profile Florida Democrat, Aronberg has surfaced as an alternative selection.

▪ Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz, 37, is a state representative from Miami and land-use attorney with the law firm Akerman LLP. A graduate of the University of Miami and Columbia Law School, Diaz came to know the president personally after appearing as a contestant on Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice,” in 2006. Diaz, despite his association with Trump, is not seen as a strong contender for the post.

▪ Frank Ledee, 53, is a veteran prosecutor in the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office who has most recently served as chief of the gang-prosecution and gun-violence units. He’s also the office’s liaison to the U.S. attorney’s office. Last year, Ledee was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to the South Broward Hospital District Board. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Barry University and law degree from Nova Southeastern University. Ledee is considered a long shot for the job.

Tuesday, June 06, 2017

Judges are speaking out

More and more, judges are starting to speak out against the real problems in our criminal justice system.  This time it's Judge Mark Bennett saying that min-mans are the worst injustice he has seen while on the bench.  From CNN:

"I strongly disagree with that decision," the judge says firmly from the bench.
It is not the first time he has felt this way. Bennett says 80% of the mandatory sentences he hands down are unjust -- but that he is handcuffed by the law, which leaves no room for judicial discretion to consider a sentence based on individual circumstances of the defendant. 
Too often, Bennett says, low-level nonviolent drug addicts dealing to feed their habit end up being sentenced like drug kingpins.
Bennett says if he had the power, he would jail Rice for perhaps a year, or 18 months. Across the street in a state courthouse, she would have been put on probation, he says.
"I think it's a miscarriage of justice," Bennett says. "But you know people are entitled to their own sense of what justice is."
In the courtroom, the judge lowers his head and his voice.
"With the greatest of reluctance, I sentence you to 60 months," he says.

Monday, June 05, 2017

Breaking News -- Judge Lenard to take Senior Status

Breaking News -- District Judge Joan Lenard informed her colleagues today that she will be taking Senior Status on July 1, 2017. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1995 to fill Judge King's slot when he went senior. Before that, she was a state circuit and county judge, as well as a state prosecutor. This will create another open seat for President Trump to fill.  Congrats to Judge Lenard, and thank you for your service to the bench.

Summer is here (Updated with cell site cert grant)

UPDATE -- the Supreme Court granted cert in the cell-tower case today. Great news as the lower courts have gotten this one wrong. Hopefully it will be an opportunity to re-examine the third-party doctrine, which is the old rationale that the courts have used to justify the acquisition of the data without a warrant. As full-disclosure, I argued the en banc Davis case on this same issue.

School is just about out.
The Supreme Court is just about done.
Trump is tweeting again. And Neal Katyal is happy about it:



What's up here in the SDFLA? Who is in trial? In the Miami old days, the courthouses literally shut down in August. Now only Raja's downtown keeps up the tradition.

Friday, June 02, 2017

Interesting article about DOJ

"It's a building full of prosecutors."  That's how this interesting article about the problems with DOJ starts. More:
Imagine an incoming president of the United States announcing that he or she would take advice on criminal justice matters exclusively from a Federal Defender’s office. Moreover, the new chief executive intends to put the defenders in charge of federal prisons, forensic science, and the clemency process. After all, the president might argue, the defenders understand federal criminal law from the ground up, have a rich understanding of the social conditions that lead to criminal behavior, and are the federal attorneys most responsible for ensuring individual Constitutional protections.

People would be outraged. Critics would complain that the defenders represent only one part of the justice system, and are inherently biased because their work in the courts is always on behalf of the accused.

Yet, somehow, the mirror image of that situation is our reality and goes largely unchallenged.

Despite an obvious conflict of interest, the Department of Justice evaluates clemency petitions, runs federal prisons, decides what forensic evidence to introduce in federal cases, and advises the president on criminal justice reform. And make no mistake — prosecutors dominate the agency, with the 93 United States Attorneys playing the leading role in setting policies across a range of issues and career prosecutors running most of the divisions.
We need you, Judges, to check DOJ.  More than ever.