Courthouses are one place where attendance can be required—skip traffic or criminal court and see what happens! Sometimes skipping divorce or small claims court can have very negative consequences, including judgments and collections (even garnishment) but for the most part you won’t get arrested for ignoring those summonses.

Courthouses then should be easily accessible to all stakeholders and users—particularly the public. In Jacksonville, the twenty-first century neo-classical seven-story marble edifice takes up two entire city blocks (planners took out a through-street to build it), yet there is NO affordable public parking anywhere nearby, and because the building does not provide parking, handicapped spaces are not mandated.

A trip to court often means lost wages, expensive parking, child care and hours of sitting on miserably uncomfortable benches. Judges should be mindful of this when scheduling; many of my clients groan when I tell them they must return another day for their case to be handled. Traffic court and misdemeanor court are by far the leading reasons for visits to the courthouse. Pinellas County got it right when they built a sprawling almost rural campus with acres of parking for criminal, traffic and juvenile courts. In Jacksonville, it pays to own a parking lot near West Adams Street. Whatever you do, don’t get a parking ticket!

I have always been amazed at the volunteer hours lawyers throughout the state put in to head committees to produce incredible continuing education courses, to identify and press for legislative action (or non-action, as the case may be), to support lawyers who find themselves in the cross-hairs of vindictive jurists, and to publish a fine quarterly magazine, The Defender.

Remember, everyone hates lawyers and makes nasty jokes about them until they need one. We are non-judgmental about our clients, we don’t shame them and we work hard to make sure they are not lost in the industrial-judicial machinery. We don’t want our clients to become, as Tom Wolfe put it in Bonfire of the Vanities, “the chow!”

So since we are often known as sharks, “Fins Up" to my incredible colleagues, and as Jimmy Buffett purportedly said in his last hours on this planet, “Keep the Party Going!”

Of course we will have to wait and see what our esteemed governor does with his line-item veto power. During a keynote address to a Federalist Society Meeting on May 22, DeSantis acknowledged he vetoes money for projects championed by legislators who oppose his agenda and priorities. (Thanks to The Florida Phoenix for this news tidbit.)

The budget contains increases for the court system, and specifically addresses salaries for Assistant State Attorneys and Assistant Public Defender; somehow, despite the fact that both of those offices here in the Fourth Judicial Circuit are understaffed with overworked lawyers and support staff, the legislature deemed it reasonable to award prosecuting attorneys a $10,000 pay raise and public defenders only $3,500.

I invite our legislators to come sit in any courtroom here in Clay, Nassau or Duval County, and see how hard the attorneys on each side work. Attorneys on both sides went to the same law schools, have the same student loans, have the same living expenses and certainly face this same stress every day. No rational reason exists for the disparity. Get it right, Florida Legislature, and give some credence to the Sixth Amendment! Equal pay for equal work.

As the American lawyer/poet John Godfrey Saxe wrote, “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made!” Definitely don’t watch them in the making. See, Fred Shapiro, The Yale Book of Quotations.

This being a large group of lawyers, tall tales at cocktail parties were inevitable. A law school classmate who is one of the best criminal defense attorneys I know was recounting his success in a murder trial when a rather conservative, hard-line but excellent trial-lawyer prosecutor chimed in with utter disbelief, “What? The State Attorney tried a murder case they couldn’t win?”

I think of that line often these days, in my third stint at the fabulous Jacksonville Public Defender’s Office. The State should not be foolhardy enough to take a weak case to trial, but in eight out of ten of the last cases our office tried—both felony and misdemeanor—not guilty verdicts were returned. In the most recent case, the client had a video of the complaining “victim” coming after him first, and even after seeing that the State persevered. Pleas to the higher-ups in the State Attorney’s Office went unheeded. After a day of jury selection and a day of trial, another not guilty verdict!

In civil litigation, a party who pursues a futile course of action is liable for costs and fees of the other side if the litigation fails, and especially so if the litigation is unfounded or vexatious (love that word!). Until there can be sanctions against the prosecuting attorneys for pushing unfounded cases forward, they will continue to do so. Reduce their budgets? Make them wear a scarlet letter? There is no good solution other than responsible leadership and professional mentoring. In the meantime, I’ll take all the not guilty verdicts out there.

This book, according to The Times, offered an inner view into Murdaugh’s psychological makeup, and was not just a recounting of the lurid details the criminal misadventures of the Murdaugh clan. Sure enough, by the time I finished my BLT wrap, I was thirty pages into The Family Man by James Lasdun and could not put it down. Of course, that meant I stayed up way too late Monday night reading. Tuesday was another late night read, and I turned the last page over just before sleep. Wednesday morning, I took the book into my office to pass off to a colleague who has handled homicide cases for nearly forty years. “You will enjoy this,” I said.

Just two short hours after I handed off the book, a “breaking news” alert came over my phone—news that Alex Murdaugh’s two murder convictions had been reversed because of inappropriate contact with and improper influence on the jury by no less that the sworn court clerk assigned to the trial. As the South Carolina Supreme Court opined, “[the clerk] placed her fingers on the scales of justice, thereby denying Murdaugh his right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.”

The court clerk had insinuated herself with the jury then inserted herself into their deliberations by urging caution about Murdaugh’s testimony, and warning them about being bamboozled. Then she had the ill grace to lie about her machinations at a post-trial hearing on a motion for new trial. For that, she was ultimately prosecuted for perjury and sentenced to probation! Seems like there should now be a method to place a finger in her bank account to recover the enormous financial costs of the “practice trial.” At least the publisher of her tell-all book withdrew it from publication. The high cost of justice!

What is beyond heartbreaking, though, is the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office response to homeless people. Today I was in first appearance court—the court where those arrested last night come before a judge for determination of probable cause and setting of bail. Today, I saw at least four and maybe five homeless people targeted by undercover detectives pretending to be drug users, looking for $10 and $20 drug buys. In each case, the street dwellers (one pulled out of a tent) were offered cash to find someone with the actual drugs, and when they did just that, they were arrested for sale of drugs—of course an enhanced charge because the behavior took place within 1000 feet of a court.

That police action of course does nothing to stop or even deter $10 or $20 drug sales—it is a huge waste of police, court and correctional resources. I fully believe the sole purpose of these arrests is to “improve” the statistics of the Sheriff’s Office, which of course, gets them more money for more cops to make more insidious arrests.

Speaking of insidious arrests, today there were three people arrested for jaywalking. Fucking jaywalking! Overnight in jail, brought to face the full power of criminal-industrial complex just to be sentenced to time served. Do I need to tell you what race these scofflaws were? If this bothers you, write our sheriff and let him know you want this waste stopped. Let’s focus on real crime, not this bullshit.

Who else but the King (referring to 1776 as “the tale of two Georges”) could remind Trump that everything we revere as holy in the founding principles of our country came from good old Great Britain? What a nice way to remind Trump that he is only a King via delusional disorder, and that he too is subject to the oft-heralded system of checks and balances! How very British.

But truly the most egregious and outlandish event this week is the indictment—yes indictment in federal criminal court—of former F.B.I. Director James Comey. I’m personally no Comey fan—remember his October 2016 surprise that either caused or contributed to Hillary’s loss? But to have the full power of the United States Department of Justice unloaded on you for posting a photograph of sea shells? As NY Times Opinion Columnist Bret Stephens mused, “It gives a whole new meaning to ‘shellshocked’.”

Were I Comey’s defense lawyer, I might cite an endearing line from that hard-drinking Calypso poet Jimmy Buffett: “she’s 86’ed from the Chart Room” (the bar at The Pier House where Buffett first hung out in Key West) which means that she was thrown out!!! Were I King, I might cite the seashells: 8647!

I’ve always been amazed at the mental gymnastics judges will go to to avoid following the constitution. Evidence seized as a result of an illegal search? Oh, let’s create an exception. Then another. And another. The evisceration of the Fourth Amendment. You asked for a lawyer before talking to detectives after you were detained? Well that was fine, but it was OK for them to start talking to you a few hours later after you made an innocent unrelated comment. The evisceration of the Fifth Amendment.

Justice Thomas (it’s hard for me to say those two words together) wants to do away with the right to counsel—court-appointed counsel, that is. I laugh when I think about how that would work, because without a functioning system of public defense, the entire court system—state and federal—would grind to a screeching halt. The sixth Amendment probably won’t be eviscerated because it would make the (well-paid) job of judging so much more inconvenient.

Back when Alan Dershowitz was a Harvard Law School Professor and sometime real lawyer (remember Claus von Bulow?), he penned the Ten Rules of the Justice Game. Number three: It is easier to convict guilty defendants by violating the Constitution, than by complying with it, and in some cases it is impossible to convict guilty defendants without violating the Constitution. Dershowitz’ ten rules (published in his book The Best Defense) were right on then and still hold true today. Somebody tell the judges about that loyalty oath please!

I also only glanced here and there at the news, but today’s headline about yet another capitulation of the Justice Department to our revenge-seeking, recklessly immature president has jolted me back into the enterprise. The New York Times headline read “U.S. Installs a Trump Loyalist to Lead ‘Grand Conspiracy’ Case Into Trump Foes,” when it really should have read “TRUMP INSTALLS . . . .” When a senior Justice Department lawyer objected to a grand jury inquiry of John Brennan she was replaced by an 81-year-old lawyer who pushes out conspiracy theories and threats of violence against those who dared to take on Trump.

But the worst news of all is that this lawyer, Joseph diGenova, will split his time between Miami and Ft. Pierce, gathering “evidence” to take to a grand jury which will be empaneled in the courthouse of none other than Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon, who famously tossed out the classified-documents-mishandling indictment against Trump. Trump praised her, calling her “strong” and “brilliant.”

I’ve just finished reading Injustice—How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department by Washington Post writers Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis (they should win another Pulitzer Prize) and was horrified by the turmoil the ravenous narcissist president has caused there. Leonnig and Davis need to issue a new edition, or at least a supplement or an addendum— there is one more incredulity-ginning fact to add to the inventory of atrocities (Thanks, A.I.!) already paraded in their book. I’m ready for another book-lovers’ interregnum.

A current first degree murder prosecution in Jacksonville is illuminative. In Florida, the prosecutor alone decides whether to seek death in any given case, and initially did so in the prosecution of two defendants in a murder-for-hire case: Mario Fernandez Saldana and Shaina Gardner. The two (who are represented by extremely competent privately-retained attorneys) are charged with hiring a hit man to kill Gardner’s ex-husband Jared Bridegan; until recently, that hit man had worked a deal with the prosecutor’s office to testify against the two but has now withdrawn from that agreement.

Gardner and Bridegan had twin children who are now young teenagers living with her very wealthy parents. Recently, the elected prosecutor in Jacksonville announced her office would no longer be seeking the death penalty in these cases because the family of the victim was concerned about the lasting trauma for the two children. While I am happy that the state is pursuing two fewer death sentences, most of my death penalty clients had children themselves. I fully believe that because my clients were not white and wealthy the prosecutor never once considered the lasting trauma for any of my clients’ children. In my last death penalty sentencing hearing, my client’s fourteen-year-old son took the stand and told the jury how much he would miss his dad. No one considered what trauma he will face when his father is executed.

The biggest failure of the death penalty is its unequal application—poor minorities still make up the largest populations on America’s death rows. There is no way an equitable and fair application of the death penalty can ever occur—it will always be capricious, based on prosecutorial whim. This unpredictably-moving goat has no place in any system of justice. Abolish the death penalty now!

Pam Bondi, at least for now, remains a member of the Florida Bar, that organization governed by the Florida Supreme Court (remember, 6 out of 7 are DeSantis appointees), which is wholly unlikely to sustain any draconian action against her license.

Nonetheless, anyone can file a grievance with the Florida Bar, by filing a complaint with the Attorney Consumer Assistance Program at Floridabar,org. I believe the group Lawyers Defending American Democracy, which had previously sued to access the complaint process, will take up the mantle again. Many lawyers I know say if they didn’t have to have that license to earn a living they would resign from the group because of the continued blind eye to her professional failures.

Members of Lawyers Defending American Democracy include a past Florida Supreme Court Justice, a past President of the American Bar Association and a two-term Attorney General of Massachusetts. Let’s hope they move forward on behalf of all of us! We can be de-Pammed.

You thought that driver’s licenses could only be suspended for cumulative points for traffic tickets, or maybe for a DUI??? Think again. How about back child support, no insurance to cover costs of an accident, refusal to submit to a blood or breath test after a DUI arrest, possession of marijuana (even if you aren’t driving or near a car), failure to pay court costs, reduction of court costs to a judgment, and more! Many of the underlying reasons for a suspension have nothing to do with driving!

And the irony of it all? If you have ignored a traffic citation or two, had your license suspended and finally get around to getting it all cleared up with payment of late fees, fines, court costs, etc., you could still end up in court with a new conviction for driving on suspended license, which, you guessed it, will suspend your license again! I watch people who are hardworking get sentenced to 30, 60, 90 days or even a year in jail.

The Duval County prosecutor’s office and the Clerk of Court once set up a program called “Keys to Drive,” a payment plan which enabled people to get their licenses as they gradually paid off old financial obligations. Makes sense to me, inasmuch as almost everyone in this state has to drive somewhere for work. No license, no work, no income. Sadly, “Keys to Drive” is gone now. The one thing that worked was cancelled. It drives me crazy!

All you editors out there forgive me!

See you next week!

I’m headed out of town for a week (annual music festival cruise—no judges in black dresses here), so hopefully by at least tomorrow the stress that those petty tyrants and small-county emperors who do wear those dresses will begin to fade away. What is it about ascension to the bench—even the county court bench (traffic court, misdemeanors, evictions, small claims)—that imparts such grandiosity and power?

I’ve even seen it among friends and former colleagues—one long time prosecutor with who I worked told me after he was appointed to the bench to let him know if he got too much of the black dress syndrome. No worries. I will.

By the way, yesterday was the 62nd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Gideon v. Wainwright, which insured the right to counsel to those facing felony charges—a day now known as Public Defender Day! Justice Thomas (who else?) wants to do away with that right (I guess we don’t have enough R.V.’s to gift him), but the entire court system would collapse if not for us! Hug a Public Defender today!

In 1972, Florida citizens voted to amend the constitution making a “unified” judicial system—a statewide mechanism designed to do away with the hundreds of municipal judges and justices of the peace and to create a structure where judges would be trained legal professionals with not put in place by a political boss.

The state was divided into 20 judicial circuits, and circuit and county judgeships were created in each circuit. Five appellate courts and one Supreme Court were created—-an appellate apparatus designed to take the load off of the Supreme Court. The quaint notion that the appellate judges and Supreme Court Justices would be appointed by Judicial Nominating Committees—committees in each district with respected attorneys and civilian participants—who would work hard without political influence to nominate extremely qualified persons to serve as judges and justices—has fallen by the wayside.

Each committee had three members nominated by the Florida Bar, three nominated by the Governor, and three others nominated by those members. In 1998, those committees were revamped by the Governor Jeb Bush and the Republican legislature to give the Governor more power to appoint members—in complete contravention of the 1972 vision.

In Florida we now have six out of seven Supreme Court Justices appointed by Ron DeSantis, and many, many more trial-level judges throughout the state were appointed to the bench by Ron—all beholden to the guv’nor for their jobs. It is delightful when a candidate announces that he or she will run against an appointed judge, even better when that candidate wins.

I know it is complicated and most likely totally boring to almost everyone but us lawyers, but keep your eye on judicial appointments and elections—your livelihood and your life may ultimately depend on your input.

Even the most irrational clients of mine were particularly irrational this week. Bizarre logic—or no logic at all—was the overarching theme of conversations with clients this week—those in jail and those out. The only explanation was the blood red full moon and the little eclipse!

That’s it—blame it on the moon, La Luna. People who work in jails and in mental health facilities will tell you they have no doubt things are stirred up when our moon slips behind our planet and shows her full face to the sun. That’s what I’m going with for the craziness this week, including the fact that I have quit my job in Starke and will be coming back to Jacksonville.

I’ll be returning to the Jacksonville Public Defender’s Office, my beloved professional home, only this time to handle a single misdemeanor court caseload. I will still be eyes on the ground, though, watching out for injustice and illiberal attacks on our constitutional democracy. Keep your eyes on this column and recommend it to your friends. I’ll keep exposing the lunacy for all to see.

Unbeknownst to King, this small gesture would send him on a six-year odyssey in the case of Leo Schofeld, an unequivocally innocent man who had been tried and convicted for the murder of his wife of six months. You may have heard the Podcast Bone Valley, or have picked up the book. If you haven’t you should.

The level of prosecutorial misconduct in the Schofeld case, including the manufacturing of evidence and the hiding of exculpatory facts, coupled with judges who go to extraordinary lengths to rule in favor of the prosecutors is abhorrent. I mention this because Ron DeSantis has made it his goal to put nothing but former prosecutors (especially those with no other legal experience) on the bench throughout the state.

It was sickening to see just how far the various judges at different levels went out of their way to rule against an innocent man. I’ve seen it every day for 47 years. Judges who come straight out of the prosecutors’ offices often never shed their loyalty; they should instead have a wide range of legal experience—criminal court, family law, real estate, probate, corporate law, personal injury—which young assistant state attorneys simply do not have. Impartiality and fairness must be the overarching qualities in a judge. If you can stand it, read Bone Valley. You will wish you could run for judge!

But nooooooo, of course not! After a battle to obtain e mails between the President of the Jacksonville City Council and his boss at his day job, the citizenry of Duval County learned that President Kevin Carrico had nominated that boss, Paul Martinez, for a position of JEA’s board because Carrico “owed him a big favor.”

That favor? Paul Martinez, the CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida, gave Carrico, the “Vice President of Strategic Initiatives” (whatever that means) at BCGC, a hefty raise. Carrico then sent a chummy e-mail to the board member he wanted to kick off so his boss—the one he owed a big favor to—could have the position.

“What up bro . . . hey I owed a big favor to a friend and opted to put him on the JEA Board as your term is expiring. . . . Not sure if you wanted to stay but I needed to do this for my guy. Tab is on me when we link up next.” What kind of bullshit faux-bromance language is this? When he was outed, the President of the Jacksonville City Council said this: “It’s unfortunate that political noise and unfair attacks sought to distract . . . .” I call it the speaking truth to [electric] power. Time to pull the plug!

But get this, the Florida Bar’s Oath of Admission (required of all lawyers) also says “I will abstain from all offensive personality . . . .” What? Who knew this was even required of lawyers? Yes, I see the thousands of internet and late night talk show jokes germinating now . . . .

So far, the Florida Bar (which governs every aspect of lawyer regulation and discipline in Florida) has been too chickenshit to take on Bondi (and Matt Gaetz, for that matter) when both expressly, notoriously and continuously violate the very fundamentals of admission to its hallowed halls.

Every lawyer in Florida should be horrified that The Florida Bar requires them to be a member of the same club as Bondi, and should complain loudly about the injustice of allowing her to continue as a member. If I didn’t have to have their imprimatur to work as a lawyer, I would turn in my card today. It’s time for a reckoning, Florida Bar!!!

Every once in a while, a private criminal defense attorney shows up. Every once in a while, the television cameras show up. Every once in a while, there are supportive family members present. Most first appearance proceedings are now held remotely, with arrested inmates appearing on video link up from the jail, while everyone else is in a courtroom across town.

The most heartbreaking scenario is a (usually in a small county) a mother or grandmother recounting to the judge the cyclic mental health history of her (usually) son or grandson ( usually a man between twenty and forty years old), pleading with the judge to somehow make her child take the prescribed medications, so that child does not spiral into uncontrolled mania, which often results in criminal behavior.

The son or grandson (sometimes a daughter, sister or granddaughter) is treated by a local non-profit mental health care provider which is often understaffed and overwhelmed. There are not enough case managers and psychiatrists to go around. Patients often slide into psychosis unnoticed by their therapists, but noticed plenty by their desperate family members. At one point in time, the Cook County Jail (Chicago) was the largest mental health ward in the country.

The 1970’s funding cut to community mental health services has resulted in a wholesale failure of delivery of services to those most in need. Imagine if there were as many mental health facilities as their are jails or prisons. Author Ron Powers sourced the title of his book Nobody Cares About Crazy People from a legislative staffer’s e mail. Let’s not performatively outlaw chemtrails or multi-colored crosswalks, but create pathways for meaningful help.