Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Elections v. Appointments?

Over at the MJB blog, there's a lot of talk about the state judicial elections and which judges are drawing opposition. The whole election of judges thing* is amazing to me. Judges aren't really permitted to campaign, except to post lots of signs around town. There is no debating the issues. There is no platform. There is just who has the better and more electable name. Seems silly...

We have it much better over here, don't we?

*Even more amazing to me is that our state PD has to run for election. How do you campaign -- "I lost more cases than anyone else?"

Unruly defendants...

Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be put on trial in the United States for involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was ejected from a federal courtroom on Monday at the start of the jury selection process because of an outburst in which he shouted "I am Al Qaeda." He was thrown out of court a total of 4 times for his continued outbursts.

So what should the judge do? This guy shouldn't be permitted to make a mockery of the system. But there is no easy solution... Someone mentioned to me that they should muzzle him, but imagine that spectacle in Court.

Interesting contrast with Moussaoui and the Padilla defendants here in the Southern District of Florida, who have been described as courteous, respectful, and polite during court appearances. The judge in the Padilla case ordered that the defendants' shackles be removed during court.

Friday, February 03, 2006

News and notes

Some quick Friday afternoon news:

1. Judge Marcia Cooke ordered that Jose Padilla not be shackled in Court.

2. Judge William Zloch sentenced attorney Sam Burstyn to 42 months (18 months less than the 60 month statutory cap the government was asking for and 35 months more than the credit time served sentence the defense was asking for). Burstyn scored out much higher than the 60 month cap (for a 371 conspiracy) under the guidelines.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

New FBI Chief in Miami

The FBI has announced that Jonathan I. Solomon is the new special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami division. Mr. Solomon has been with the FBI for more than twenty years and had a brief stint here in South Florida in 2004. It will interesting to see how this will affect the number and types of cases prosecuted in the Southern District of Florida.

Score!

Judge Alan Gold preliminarily approved a $1.075 billion settlement between Exxon Mobil Corp. and thousands of service station dealers who were found by a jury to have been overcharged by the company, settling a 14-year fight that went to the Supreme Court. The dealers are represented by Eugene Stearns, Mark Dikeman, and Mona Markus at Stearns Weaver. Exxon has been represented by lots of lawyers. At trial it was Larry Stewart. At the 11th Circuit, it was Howrey & Simon. At the Supremes it was Carter Phillips. And during the claims administration process it was Hunton & Williams and Burlington Weil. Fourteen years after the case was filed and after losing at every level of federal court, Exxon finally relented.

Disclosure -- Mona is my lovely wife.