BROWARD COUNTY PBA DAILY CLIPS

Transcription

1 BROWARD COUNTY PBA DAILY CLIPS February 7, 2017

2 MEDIA OUTLET: Sun Sentinel HEADLINE: Florida Senate committee backs unanimous juries for death sentences BYLINE: Dara Kam LINK: STORY: Florida juries would have to unanimously agree that defendants should be condemned to death for the sentence to be imposed, under a proposal given swift and overwhelming approval at its first Senate committee Monday. But efforts to broaden the legislation to address other issues involved in a series of court rulings that prompted this year's measure appear, at least for now, to be doomed. Proposals to require unanimous jury recommendations, backed by leaders in the House and Senate, come as Florida's death penalty has been on hold for more than a year as a result of a key U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in a case known as Hurst v. Florida, in January The 8-1 decision, based in part on a 2002 ruling in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, struck down as unconstitutional Florida's death penalty sentencing system because it gave too much power to judges, instead of juries. Florida lawmakers hurriedly rewrote the statute last year, requiring jurors to unanimously find that at least one aggravating factor exists before a defendant can be eligible for a death sentence and requiring at least 10 jurors to recommend death for the sentence to be imposed. The Supreme Court ruling and the subsequent legislation dealt with the sentencing phase of cases, after juries have unanimously found defendants guilty of crimes. During debate on the sentencing issue last year, defense lawyers repeatedly warned that the 10-2 jury recommendation pushed by prosecutors kept the state's death penalty law at risk because it made Florida, one of only three states that then did not require unanimous recommendations, a national "outlier." The Florida Supreme Court last fall struck down the new statute, finding that part of the new law was unconstitutional because it did not require unanimous recommendations for death sentences. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Monday unanimously approved a measure (SB 280), sponsored by committee Chairman Randolph Bracy, aimed at fixing the flaw in the statute by requiring unanimous jury recommendations. Bracy, an Orlando Democrat, said he had spoken with people on both sides of the issue about what he acknowledged is a controversial topic. "The one thing that has been consistent is that people have told me that the death penalty should be a last resort and the crime should be worthy of death," he said. "I think we're getting a lot closer to that." But defense lawyers cautioned that, even while they support the unanimity requirement, the state law is still flawed without additional changes. 1

3 "Let me stress this is a first step, not a final solution," 10th Judicial Circuit Public Defender Rex Dimmig told the panel Monday. The proposal fixes the problems regarding the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury, Dimmig said, but "it does not mean that our procedures will be constitutional in the future." Florida law requires juries to make recommendations about death sentences after weighing aggravating factors, laid out in statute, and mitigating circumstances. But Florida law identifies at least 16 aggravating factors, including whether a defendant is a member of a gang, that make defendants eligible for the death penalty. But courts have long determined that the death penalty should be reserved for the "worst of the worst" defendants, and Florida's long list of aggravators means the state law isn't narrow enough, Dimmig and other lawyers including some members of the Florida Supreme Court have argued. Sen. Jeff Clemens warned his colleagues on the panel that the Legislature could once again find itself in the position of having to deal with an unconstitutional death penalty law if the aggravating factors aren't addressed. Lawmakers "knew what was going to happen" when they failed to require unanimous jury recommendations last year, the Lake Worth Democrat said. Last year's law requiring at least 10 jurors to recommend death was considered a compromise between House and Senate leaders. The Senate wanted unanimous jury recommendations, while the House backed a proposal pushed by prosecutors that would have required at least nine jurors to recommend death. "I'm making that prediction right now that we'll be back here again," Clemens said. "We do just enough each year to make us feel good and then we have to come back and redo it again." Dimmig said he would be "absolutely shocked" if the U.S. Supreme Court "do(es) not find our death penalty overly broad based on the number of aggravators we have." Lawmakers also appear unwilling to deal with an issue known as "retroactivity," in the wake of a controversial Florida court decision that requiring unanimous jury recommendations would apply to defendants whose cases were finalized after the 2002 decision in the Ring case. Bracy had sponsored an amendment that would have allowed Death Row inmates whose cases were finalized before 2002 to seek new sentencing hearings. Not allowing those inmates to have new hearings "will result in a miscarriage of justice," said the amendment, which Bracy withdrew without comment. "I didn't have the votes to pass it," Bracy told reporters after the meeting. "To save time, to save money, I thought why not just be proactive. It's something I think we should do. It's just a matter of if it's something the rest of the Legislature thinks we should do." 2

4 Even without the change proposed by Bracy, more than half of the state's 396 Death Row inmates could be eligible for new sentencing hearings, a cost Dimmig estimated could be in excess of $200 million. "It's going to literally swamp the courts for years to come," he said. 3

5 MEDIA OUTLET: The Broward Beat HEADLINE: Unfairness In Court: It s Not A Black Or White Thing.It s A Green $$$ Thing BYLINE: Sam Fields LINK: STORY: Imagine you have been arrested for a First Degree felony and are facing thirty years in jail. Out of nowhere the Judicial Genie appears and offers you a choice about how you shall appear in court: Do you want to be: Poor and White or Rich and Black? If you have read the recent newspaper stories contending that unfair sentencing in Florida courts is based on race, you would probably prefer to be poor and White. I wouldn t and I will explain why. As a result of a study by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that included examining 85,000 criminal appeals, the paper concluded that Black people get much harsher sentences than White people even when they have committed identical crimes and have similar rap sheets. They looked at a number of factors including the race and party registration of the judges. Among the things they found was that White and/or GOP judges were harsher on Blacks than Black and/or Democratic judges. In their final conclusion they adopted the analysis of Cassia Spohn the Director of the Criminal Justice School at Arizona State University: If black offenders with the same sentencing points as white offender consistently receive harsher sentences than white offenders, one can conclude that judges are not using their sentencing discretion in a racially neutral way. What the study didn t do was look at the differences in legal representation that only money can buy. At one end you have a private attorney with a caseload of 25 or 30 cases who might spend a hundred hours on a case. At the other end is a Public Defender who handles at least 500 cases a year and is likely to have 125 active felony files. Subtract the time spent in trial on a few cases and the average PD client is lucky to get more than a few hours of his lawyer s time. With that kind of a caseload it doesn t matter that some of the best lawyers in Florida are PD s. After all, even Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax couldn t pitch every day. And I speak from my PD experience when things were substantially better. 4

6 In the 1980 s I was a Public Defender for the legendary Al Schreiber. As a felony PD attorney we had half the caseload today s PD s have. Back then Schreiber and many of the Public Defenders around the state had good relations with governors and legislatures that were controlled by Democrats. These governors and legislatures were more likely to be sympathetic to the need$$$ of the accused. When I went into private practice at the white shoe (Think rich White clients) law firm Ruden, McCloskey, I never carried more than 25 cases including felonies and misdemeanors. In most of my cases I had the resources to hire paralegals, investigators and expert witnesses who could give me the ammunition necessary for trial and a better deal. Money was especially important in cases where the defendant or his parents dangled a check for restitution. Often that put the victim on my side in encouraging the prosecutor to go below the sentencing guidelines. In drug cases my client had insurance or money to go the best rehabilitation facilities. Therapists testified to the court about how my client recovered from his addiction and did not need jail. Money Makes The Difference It was not a black or white thing it was a green thing. Take the case of Donté Stallworth, a Black man arrested in 2012 for DUI Manslaughter in Miami Beach. Under Florida Sentencing Guidelines, he was looking at a year statutory minimum! He got 30 days! And while the prosecutor attributed the lenient sentence to his cooperation with law enforcement that was hardly the whole story. In case you don t recognize the name he was a wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns. He was driving his Bentley drunk and speeding when he killed a pedestrian, a crane operator on his way home from work. Sure, owning up to his crime was good. Hiring the best lawyers in town and offering a multimillion dollar check to the victim s family was even better. Does anyone think O.J Simpson would have walked on a double homicide if he was O.J. Jones and represented by an overworked/underpaid Public Defender? Is race ever a factor in the criminal justice system? Sure, but these days it s far less important than being rich or poor. But come on folks, doesn t that apply to almost everything? Along with the legal system, it is way better to be rich than poor if you need healthcare or want an education. Hell, it s better to be rich when getting a table at Joe s Stone Crabs. Now, only a fool would deny that poverty rates are race related. Black people earn 60% of what Whites earn. A recent study determined that White net worth is 13 times that of Black people! You can quickly see how this translates into Black people, who are more likely to be poor, getting the short end of the deal in court. 5

7 It s critical to understand this so we do not assume that discrimination in the courts is just some Political Correctness problem. It is not curable by sensitivity training for cops, prosecutors and judges. The problems and the solutions for achieving equal justice under law are far, far deeper. (Sam Fields is a veteran criminal defense attorney based in Plantation, Florida.) 6

8 MEDIA OUTLET: Miami Herald HEADLINE: Fort Lauderdale police: SEAL killed in Yemen was son of detective BYLINE: Staff Report LINK: STORY: The commando who was killed in the first Special Operations raid of the Trump administration was the son of a detective who worked at the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, a department spokesman said. Detective Keven Dupree, the police spokesman, did not identify the parent of Special Forces Operator William Ryan Owens, or say when that parent worked there. But, in a posting on Facebook Friday Dupree wrote: As the son of a retired FLPD detective, SCPO Owens is one of our own. We honor his life of service and are forever indebted for his dedication and unselfish sacrifice. The entire FLPD family extends our deepest condolences to the family of SCPO Owens. #HonortheFallen. An obituary published in 2013 marked the death of Patricia Ann Treutle, identifying her as a Fort Lauderdale police detective for 13 years. It lists William Owens as her son. Owens father is Bill Owens, a police officer who retired many years ago, said Bob Pusins, executive director at the Broward Sheriff s Office, who retired from Fort Lauderdale police about 13 years ago. When Owens retired from the police department, he went into real estate, Pusins said. Pusins said in the 1980s he lived in the same Fort Lauderdale neighborhood, Palm Aire Village, as the Owens family. Pusins son Ryan played with Ryan Owens. Bill is a devoted father and had great kids you could see the smile that Ryan has is reflective of what a fine young man he turned out to be, you can t help but appreciate his smile that you have seen in that picture that has been posted, Pusins said. A Pentagon announcement of Owens death listed the SEAL s hometown as Peoria, Ill. Local newspapers in Illinois said Owens, a husband and father of three, went to high school there. He was killed during a weekend raid inside Yemen that gathered material from a suspected al-qaida of the Arabian Peninsula site, the first counterterrorism operation of the Trump presidency. President Donald Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, made a surprise trip to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday to meet the remains of Owens, the first known U.S. combat casualty since Trump took office less than two weeks ago. It is possible that the president may have spoken to the retired Fort Lauderdale police officer. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement Tuesday: The president offered his sincerest condolences to Officer Owens s wife, his father, and their three children. At the Pentagon, a Navy spokesman said it had no additional information beyond the fact that Owens listed Peoria as his hometown. Funeral arrangements were not available. 7