You can watch Trump’s press conference here where he lists all of the candidates here, including our very own Barbara Lagoa. The other Florida short-lister is Carlos Muniz on the Florida Supreme Court.
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
Wednesday, September 09, 2020
Update to Florida Supreme Court Justice controversy by Kyle S. Roberts
Here's a further update to Kyle S. Robert's post on the Florida Supreme Court:
On September 8, 2020, the Florida Supreme Court denied Thompson’s motion for rehearing, but granted her motion for leave to amend the Emergency Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto and Writ of Mandamus.
The Court ordered the Governor to show cause why he should not be required immediately to fill the vacancy in office of justice of the supreme court by appointing a candidate who was on the JNC's certified list of January 23, 2020, and is now constitutionally eligible for appointment. The Governor shall respond by Wednesday, September 9, 2020.
Monday, September 07, 2020
Curtis Flowers won't be retried
It would have been his 7th -- SEVENTH! -- trial. The AP covers the decision here:
A Mississippi man freed last year after 22 years in prison will not be tried a seventh time in a quadruple murder case, a judge ruled Friday after prosecutors told him they no longer had any credible witnesses.
Curtis Flowers was convicted multiple times in a bloody slaying and robbery at a small-town furniture store in 1996. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out the most recent conviction in June 2019, citing racial bias in jury selection.
“Today, I am finally free from the injustice that left me locked in a box for nearly twenty three years,” Flowers said in a statement released by his lawyer. “I’ve been asked if I ever thought this day would come. I have been blessed with a family that never gave up on me and with them by my side, I knew it would.”
Montgomery County Circuit Judge Joseph Loper signed the order Friday after the state attorney general’s office, which had taken over the case, admitted the evidence was too weak to proceed with another trial.
“As the evidence stands today, there is no key prosecution witness ... who is alive and available and has not had multiple, conflicting statements in the record,” Assistant Attorney General Mary Helen Wall wrote in a filing presented to Loper on Friday.
Vangela Wade, one of Flowers' current lawyers, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post. It starts this way:
Nearly 23 years. More than 8,000 days. That’s how long Curtis Flowers — a Black man who was tried an astonishing six times for the same crime — was locked away in a cramped jail cell with little ability to see his family. Until Friday, when Mississippi’s attorney general decided to drop the charges, Flowers was waiting to find out whether he would be subjected to yet another trial.
My organization, the Mississippi Center for Justice, has been defending Flowers since summer 2019, working with the team of lawyers that has represented him for many years. We are thrilled that he will finally go free. The accusations against Flowers were never grounded in facts, but rather fueled by improper conduct by Montgomery County District Attorney Doug Evans — the prosecutor in each of Flowers’s six trials.
Unfortunately, the Flowers case offers just a tiny snapshot of prosecutorial misconduct. Such misconduct — which can include introducing false evidence, using dubious informants, withholding evidence that could exonerate the defendant or discriminating in jury selection — puts countless innocent people behind bars. As a former prosecutor — notably, the only Black staff member in the office — I witnessed firsthand the disproportionate number of African Americans entangled within the criminal justice system.
Prosecutors wield enormous control over the criminal justice system. They determine which charges to pursue — if any — and make recommendations on bail, pretrial incarceration and sentencing, which are often accepted by judges. In each of these instances, prosecutors have the potential to abuse civil rights — with few, if any, consequences.
Thursday, September 03, 2020
Michael Sherwin is a good example of a U.S. Attorney with principles
Check out this Washington Post article here. Sherwin is being criticized by both the left and the right. But he's just trying to do the right thing by not bringing charges where there is no evidence. Good for Sherwin!
Noting the mass arrests three weeks ago of 42 people who police said were in a group that spray-painted buildings and set fire to patio umbrellas in Northwest Washington’s Adams Morgan area, acting U.S. attorney Michael Sherwin told Bowser in his own letter that he had no choice but to drop charges against all but one defendant.
“The ‘42 rioters’ were arrested as a collective by MPD and presented to the Office without any articulable facts linking criminal conduct to each individual arrested,” Sherwin wrote in his letter. “Simply put, we cannot charge crimes on the basis of mere presence or guilt by association.”
In his letter, Sherwin says he met with police leaders to request help “to further develop these cases to establish a bare minimum of probable cause. To date, no sufficient evidence has materialized.”
***
“As I am sure you are aware, without some evidence to establish probable cause of a particular arrestee’s criminal conduct — e.g.,
a police officer’s observation or video footage of the alleged crime —
we cannot bring federal charges,” Sherwin wrote. “Surely, by your
comments, you are not suggesting that this Office skirt constitutional
protections and due process.”
Tuesday, September 01, 2020
I’m no fan of Steve Bannon.
But the way DOJ is treating him and his co-defendants in the press isn’t right. I call it chutzpah in this piece in the Hill:
Chutzpah is defined as “shameless audacity.” In his book of the same name, Alan Dershowitz said the concept is more easily demonstrated than defined. He gave the classic illustration of the kid who murders his parents and then pleads for mercy on the ground that he is an orphan. The Department of Justice’s recent actions with respect to Brian Kolfage (Steve Bannon’s co-defendant) — issuing press releases with inflammatory quotes about the allegations and the arrest while at the same time filing a motion with the court saying that the defense should not be able to respond in the press — is another good example of chutzpah. So too is DOJ's handling of the press in the Ghislaine Maxwell case — holding a lengthy press conference with pictures and charts and opposing the defense’s motion to curtail the prosecution’s media blitz.
On Aug. 20, the DOJ arrested Kolfage, Bannon and other alleged co-conspirators for fraud in connection with an online fundraising campaign for “We Build the Wall.” Regardless of what you think of Steve Bannon, President Trump, or “the wall” — and as a liberal Democrat, I have pretty strong views — all defendants are presumed innocent and should be treated fairly.