Daily News Summary
An electronic digest of media coverage of interest to members of The Florida Bar compiled each workday by the Public Information and Bar Services Department. Electronic links are only active in today's edition. For information on previous articles, please contact the publishing newspaper directly.
Nov. 13, 2009
GOWDY PLEADS CASE TO NATION'S HIGHEST COURT-- Jacksonville Daily Record, http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com, Nov. 12, 2009.
Seven hundred hours is equivalent to nearly 30 24-hour days. It is also equal to about 90 business days, which breaks down to four-and-a-half months. This has been the time, to date, that Jacksonville attorney Bryan Gowdy has spent representing Terrance Jamar Graham who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for armed burglary and attempted armed robbery for an incident which occurred in 2003. Graham, now 22, was 16 when he committed the crime. Graham's mother retained Gowdy's firm, now Mills, Creed & Gowdy, to represent her son during the appellate process and the constitutionality of the sentence is now being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. On Monday [Nov. 9] Gowdy presented the argument of whether the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments prohibits the imprisonment of a juvenile for life without the possibility of parole for a crime not resulting in homicide.
HIS LATEST MISSION: PROSECUTOR-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, http://www.heraldtribune.com, Nov. 13, 2009.
Like a military man with a top secret security clearance, Art Jackman keeps personal information close to the vest. For instance, unless you ask him directly, he will not tell about how he spent the last three years at the Pentagon, advising the top Air Force attorney on personnel moves of 1,400 military lawyers and paralegals. Jackman's disciplined approach to his life and work is likely to serve him well now that he has left the military and returned to his former employer in Sarasota: the State Attorney's Office. Last month, Jackman came back to Sarasota and brought a new level of military precision and preparedness to felony criminal prosecutions in Sarasota County.
--Lawyer Ethics/Legal Discipline--
FLORIDA BAR SCOLDS BONITA SPRINGS ATTORNEY-- Naples Daily News, http://www.naplesnews.com, Nov. 13, 2009.
Faced with numerous Bar complaints against her, Lee County family law attorney Pamela Joan Steed entered a conditional plea for a consent judgment in June. The Supreme Court ruled Sept. 3 that Steed will receive a public reprimand. The discipline was announced last month by The Florida Bar, which listed the sole practitioner among 19 attorneys recently disciplined statewide. As part of her conditional plea, Steed also must send a handwritten letter of apology to General Magistrate Margaret Rosenbaum, who found her in contempt for failing to write a report and show up for hearings in circuit court. Additionally, she must attend ethics school and pay restitution to a client.
--Judiciary--
NO MYSTERY WHERE JUDGE GETS HER PLOTS-- Daily Business Review, http://www.dailybusinessreview.com, Nov. 13, 2009.
Senior Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Barbara Levenson was accustomed to writing orders, legal briefs and opinions. Now she writes for the sheer joy of putting words on paper. Levenson wrote "Fatal February," the first in a planned series of novels featuring fictional Miami criminal defense attorney Mary Magruder Katz. Levenson spent several years working as a prosecutor under then-Miami-Dade State Attorney Janet Reno, eventually became a criminal defense attorney and was elected to the bench in 1992. She took senior status in June 2004 and had free time on her hands. She began her new career after taking a class in literary arts at Miami Dade College and participating in a summer writers' program at Kenyon College in Ohio. Levenson will present "Fatal February" Sunday [Nov. 15] at the Miami Book Fair International, which brings more than 400 authors to Florida.
--Civil Justice Issues--
D'ALEMBERTE ARGUES FOR MENTAL-HEALTH TREATMENT-- Tallahassee Democrat, http://www.tallahassee.com, Nov. 13, 2009.
Does the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment mean the state can't imprison someone with psychiatric problems when mental treatment is available? Or is the state's first duty to punish such offenders, with rehabilitation ranking second? Those questions were argued in the 1st District Court of Appeal Thursday [Nov. 12] during an appeal by a former Florida State University student serving 12 years for possession of child pornography on his computer. Attorney Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, a former FSU president and law-school dean, asked a three-judge panel to send Jason West's case back to Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey for possible referral to a mental-health court. However, Assistant Attorney General Michael Kennett said West could get 33 years for 101 computer images. He said lack of mental-health counseling is not grounds for resentencing, even though psychologists testified the man would benefit from it and his family stands ready to pay for it. Appeals courts usually hear arguments that trials were unfair or that judges misinterpreted the law. But D'Alemberte said Dempsey got the law right and the sentence wrong.
U.S. SUPREME COURT REVIEWING TALLAHASSEE MAN'S CASE-- Tallahassee Democrat, http://www.tallahassee.com, Nov. 13, 2009.
Former Tallahassee postal service employee Kenneth Wills Sr. has spent the last four years trying to have a court hear his discrimination case against the U.S. Postal Service. He has done so on his own, without legal representation. After being denied at the federal district and appellate courts, Wills may finally have an audience in the U.S. Supreme Court. Wills publicly announced that the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing his case to determine if it will be heard in court. He should know by Monday [Nov. 16] if his case will be heard or not. Wills said his workplace problems began when he was assaulted by a supervisor, who also threatened to "blow his brains out." Wills also claims that USPS fired him based on absences that had been approved by the Family Medical Leave Act. He insists that he was discriminated against because he is black man and has a mental disability. Wills' case is being considered even though he is representing himself. The law firm of Parks & Crump will help Wills prepare a brief on the case.
--Other--
A LASTING REPUTATION-- Daytona Beach News-Journal, editorial, http://www.news-journalonline.com, Nov. 13, 2009.
The editorial states: "Melvin Orfinger's name is woven throughout the past 60 years of Volusia County's history -- as Daytona Beach's city attorney, founding trustee of Ormond Memorial Hospital and, most notably, as a circuit and an appellate judge. . . . Orfinger died Wednesday [Nov. 11], but his integrity and legal acumen will live on in the precedents he set, and the generations of attorneys he influenced."
STATE ATTORNEY, CHIEF JUDGE AT ODDS OVER BRIDGE TO NEW DUVAL COURTHOUSE-- The Florida Times-Union, http://www.jacksonville.com, Nov. 13, 2009.
Arguments for and against a $400,000 elevated bridge connecting the prosecutor’s office and the new Duval County Courthouse hinge on security. State Attorney Angela Corey says it’s essential for the safety of her attorneys and staff, who shuttle back and forth between their offices and the courthouse several times a day. However, Chief Circuit Judge Donald Moran says it just creates another access point into the courthouse that will have to be secured. Prosecutors now walk from their nearby offices to the courthouse. Corey said her attorneys are often threatened by the families of people being prosecuted, but she didn’t know of any incidents where prosecutors have been harmed walking between the two buildings. Moran says the bridge is a waste of money for people walking just 110 feet. He also called it a safety risk because the prosecutors would control who gets bridge access.
[Revised: 11-16-2009]
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