News and Events
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.
Sept. 5, 2008
--Judiciary--
JUSTICE CANTERO GETS SUPREME COURT SEND-OFF-- The Miami Herald, http://www.miamherald.com, Sept. 5, 2008.
The Florida Supreme Court held its goodbye ceremony Thursday [Sept. 4] for retiring Justice Raoul Cantero III. The 47-year-old lawyer announced in April he would leave the bench and return his family to Miami to be closer to relatives. The usually subdued courtroom was packed with Cantero's friends and family, including Gov. Charlie Crist, the six other justices, the presidents of The Florida Bar and the Cuban American Bar, the dean of Florida State University's law school and school mates of his three children. Cantero, the first Cuban American justice to serve on the court, was appointed in 2002 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush.
SUPREME CHALLENGE FOR UF STUDENTS-- The Gainesville Sun, http://www.gainesville.com, Sept. 5, 2008.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts arrived in Gainesville on Thursday night [Sept. 4] for a reception at the UF President’s Mansion. Today, he helps judge a moot court competition with four law students arguing a fictional case about the constitutionality of pro-life license plates. Roberts is the third U.S. Supreme Court justice to visit in as many years. UF law students are enthusiastic about such opportunities, and Thursday night's reception was used to announce a continuing program for visiting judges.
PALM BEACH BALLOT MESS GETS WORSE-- Daily Business Review, http://www.dailybusinessreview, Sept. 4, 2008.
The primary ballot mess in Palm Beach County got worse Thursday [Sept. 4]. The state of Florida refused to certify results in a tight race between Palm Beach Circuit Judge Richard Wennet and challenger William Abramson, and Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning was in West Palm Beach to help figure out what was going on.
--Civil Justice Issues--
GROUP PUSHING HISPANIC LICENSE TAG FILES DISCRIMINATION SUIT-- Daytona Beach News-Journal, http://www.news-journalonline.com, Sept. 5, 2008.
A group trying to get a Hispanic specialty license plate tagged the state with a federal lawsuit on Thursday [Sept. 4], claiming an unconstitutional and discriminatory rule is blocking it from getting the plate. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando against the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, said Adam Sudbury, an attorney for Hispanic Achievers. The lawsuit claims the sampling method required by the state would doom Hispanic Achievers' proposed specialty plate, which in one design depicts a Spanish galleon with the words 'Hispanics settled Florida.' The problem is that the state requires a statewide random survey instead of allowing Hispanic Achievers to focus on Hispanic residents, the suit said.
VOLUSIA OPENS DOOR TO NEW MENTAL-HEALTH SERVICE AT JAIL-- Daytona Beach News-Journal, http://www.news-journalonline.com, Sept. 5, 2008.
The Volusia County Council and County Manager Jim Dinneen made a surprise move Thursday [Sept. 4] to take steps to open the mental-health portion of the jail health care contract to Act Corp. The arrangement could be a subcontract with Prison Health Services or a separate contract with the county. County administration and the corrections division were originally recommending extending Prison Health Services' overall contract for 18 months until further review can be made. Its contract ends Sept. 30. Prison Health Services, which along with the county has faced criticism and lawsuits over the care of inmates, will negotiate over the next 45 days with officials at Act and Stewart-Marchman Center, the area's main mental-health and substance-abuse providers, which are merging services in October.
--Criminal Justice Issues--
JUDGE GETS FAX FROM FASANO, TRIAL IS DERAILED-- The Tampa Tribune, http://www.tbo.com, Sept. 5, 2008. [Also: FASANO LETTER TO JUDGE PROMPTS MISTRIAL-- St. Petersburg Times, http://www.tampabay.com, Sept. 5, 2008].
From The Tampa Tribune: Under normal circumstances, State Sen. Mike Fasano's Thursday morning [Sept. 4] fax to Circuit Judge Jack Day might have amounted to nothing more than another person's opinion about an ongoing case. This was different. Day was presiding over the trial of a couple accused of cheating 91-year-old Eloise Mudway out of her house and assets. Unlike most criminal cases, which are decided by juries, the judge alone was to determine whether Joe and Cynthia Clancy were guilty and, in the event he did, what their sentences should be. That made Fasano's letter condemning the Clancys and suggesting they receive the harshest possible sentences grounds for a recusal, defense attorneys argued. Day granted the request, prematurely ending a trial that has been on the docket since October 2005.
PROSECUTORS, DEFENSE DISPUTE INTENT TO KILL IN BEATINGS OF HOMELESS MEN-- Sun-Sentinel, http://www.sun-sentinel.com, Sept. 5, 2008. [Also: DEFENSE: KILLING UNINTENTIONAL-- The Miami Herald, http://www.miamiherald.com, Sept. 5, 2008].
From the Sun-Sentinel: It was a case that disturbed and mesmerized the nation with videotaped images of a homeless man scrambling to escape two baseball bat-wielding assailants. Now, a Broward County jury must decide whether two young Plantation men were to blame and whether they should spend their lives in prison for it and two other beatings, one of which proved fatal. Defendants Thomas Daugherty and Brian Hooks were wasted on Xanax, vodka and marijuana and out to beat up homeless people Jan. 12, 2006, but had no desire to kill or cause serious harm, their attorneys said Thursday [Sept. 5] as their trial began. Prosecutor Peter Holden countered that the defendants attacked with deadly force while their victims were simply seeking "a place to rest their heads."
KILLER RELEASED FROM 'ILLEGAL' SENTENCE-- Panama City News Herald, http://www.newsherald.com, Sept. 5, 2008.
Mark Mills has been saying since 2004 that he's been in prison too long for a 1997 manslaughter in Bay County. The First District Court of Appeal agreed with him Thursday [Sept. 4] and ordered his immediate release. Mills, 45, killed Benny Wayne Click on Jan. 18, 1997, at St. Andrews Marina during a fight over cigarettes. Circuit Judge Dedee Costello sentenced him to 15 years in prison according to the guidelines in place at the time. A short time later, the Florida Supreme Court threw out those guidelines as unconstitutional and ordered defendants sentenced under them to receive new penalties based on an earlier set of guidelines. Mills' maximum recommended sentence dropped to 92½ months, and he requested a resentencing in 2000. Costello, however, renewed her original sentencing, which by then was a departure from the guidelines and therefore required a legal justification.
--Other--
JIM KROG, SOUGHT-AFTER LOBBYIST AND POLITICAL STRATEGIST, DIES AT 60-- St. Petersburg Times, http://www.tampabay.com, Sept. 5, 2008.
Jim Krog, who managed both of Lawton Chiles' winning campaigns for governor in the 1990's and was a sought-after lobbyist and political strategist, died Thursday [Sept. 4] in Tallahassee. Krog, a Tampa Bay native, had battled skin cancer over the past year and was undergoing chemotherapy before suffering a heart attack Wednesday [Sept. 3]. Krog became legislative director for former Gov. Reubin Askew and later joined the law firm of Steel, Hector & Davis. Though not a lawyer, he was among the first strategists to be an in-house lobbyist at a law firm with a lobbying practice. Krog's last position was as a legislative consultant for the law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey.
THE STATE SUPREME COURT WAS RIGHT TO TOSS OUT THREE FLAWED AMENDMENTS-- Orlando Sentinel, editorial, http://www.orlandosentinel.com, Sept. 5, 2008. [Also: REAL TAX REFORM NEEDED-- The News-Press, editorial, http://www.news-press.com, Sept. 5, 2008; HIGH COURT STOPPED AMENDMENT FEVER-- Tallahassee Democrat, editorial, http://www.tallahassee.com, Sept. 5, 2008; FAILURE TO PROVIDE REAL TAX REFORM PUTS FLORIDA'S FUTURE AT RISK-- The Tampa Tribune, editorial, http://www.tbo.com, Sept. 5, 2008; REFORM COMMISSION: OPPORTUNITY WASTED IN FLORIDA-- The Ledger, editorial, http://www.theledger.com, Sept. 5, 2008].
The Orlando Sentinel editorial states: ". . . Three of seven amendments to Florida's Constitution that the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission wanted voters to decide on this fall didn't get past the state Supreme Court on Wednesday [Sept. 3]. No doubt this will inspire more criticism of "activist judges," who seem to get that label when their rulings aren't consistent with the critics' political convictions. In truth, these amendments were either a mess or a brazen attempt to bamboozle the voting public. The court was right to give them the boot."
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[Revised:
07-01-2005
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