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Thread: State Supreme Courts

  1. #1
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    State Supreme Courts

    All Kansas Supreme Court Justices Retained

    After roughly a million dollars in TV and radio ads plus a blizzard of postcards, the Kansas Supreme Court didn't change one bit with Tuesday's elections.

    With a majority of precincts reporting, all four of the justices who had been targeted by the Republican Party, Kansans for Life and other conservative groups comfortably won retention.

    “Kansans have sent a very clear message, not just to the special interest groups that Gov. Brownback has funded but to the governor himself: hands off our court,” says Ryan Wright from Kansans for Fair Courts, the organization that raised at least $400,000 to help keep the justices on the bench.

    Retained were Chief Justice Lawton Nuss, Justice Dan Biles, Justice Carol Beier, Justice Marla Luckert and Justice Caleb Stegall.

    No one targeted Stegall for ouster, the only justice on the high court appointed by Gov. Sam Brownback.

    Kansans for Justice lead the fight to fire the other four, raising more than a half-million dollars to run ads saying they had improperly overturned a number of death penalty cases.

    Conservatives also attacked the justices over rulings on abortion and school funding.

    In a statement Chief Justice Nuss, speaking for his colleagues, said voters put aside their political beliefs and backed a nonpartisan court. "The supreme court’s ability to make decisions based on the rule of law -- and the people’s constitution -- has been preserved," Nuss said.

    Two years ago Kansans for Life, an anti-abortion group, unsuccessfully tried to oust two other Supreme Court justices begging the question, are expensive and bitter judicial retention elections a new element in Kansas political campaigns?

    “I don’t know if it will be the last one waged but rest assured we’ll be here and we’re prepared to stand up for fair and impartial courts no matter who’s on the ballot,” Wright says.

    Several Court of Appeals judges were also targeted by conservatives. All of them were also retained.

    "We are disappointed that Kansas voters left bad justices in place in Topeka," Kansans for Justice said in a statement.

    http://kcur.org/post/all-kansas-supr...ained#stream/0
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    Republicans sweep Texas Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Appeals races

    During the 2016 general election campaign, Democratic candidates for Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals seats said they hoped that having Donald Trump at the top of the GOP ballot would help their prospects in the solidly red state.

    But rather than being dragged down by the Republican presidential candidate, the six GOP candidates for the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals joined Trump as Election Day winners in the Lone Star State.

    Statewide court races in Texas are rarely high-profile contests, particularly in a presidential election year. Such elections typically come down to party ID — and that held true Tuesday evening.

    With early returns coming in, Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Larry Meyers, the only Democrat in a statewide office, lost his Place 2 race to challenger Mary Lou Keel. Meyers, who was first elected to the court in 1992, had switched parties in 2013, criticizing the Tea Party takeover of the Republican Party. Keel is a Harris County state district judge.

    In the other contests for seats on the state's highest criminal court, Republican Fort Worth attorney Scott Walker defeated San Antonio attorney and Democrat Betsy Johnson in the open Place 5 race. Incumbent Republican Judge Michael Keasler, who has been a judge on the court since 1999, beat Dallas County District Judge Robert Burns, the Democratic challenger, in Place 6.

    In those races, the candidates talked largely about criminal justice reform and capital punishment. Those races also were characterized in part by Meyers' party change and Walker's name. Almost all of the candidates agreed that criminal cases involving drug addiction and mental illness need to be settled outside the courtroom. However, their views on capital punishment reflected the challenge Texans face in any effort to realize reforms to the state's death penalty.

    In the Supreme Court races, Democratic challengers said they wanted to bring diversity to the bench. Voters chose to stick with their Republican incumbents.

    Republican Justice Debra Lehrmann defeated Democratic challenger Mike Westergren in the Place 3 race. Lehrmann has been on the bench since 2010, and Westergren is a Corpus Christi lawyer, former state district judge and justice of the peace in Nueces County.

    In the Place 5 race, Republican Justice Paul Green defeated Democrat Dori Contreras Garza. Green was first elected to the court in 2004, and Garza is a justice on the 13th Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi.

    In the Place 9 contest, Republican Justice Eva Guzman was victorious over Democrat Savannah Robinson. The Supreme Court is the state's highest civil court. In Place 9, Guzman has been on the court since 2009, and Robinson is a Danbury lawyer.

    https://www.texastribune.org/2016/11...peals-results/

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Republican Pat DeWine wins Ohio Supreme Court seat; 2nd race remains too close to call

    By Randy Ludlow
    The Columbus Dispatch

    Republican Pat DeWine won election to the Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday, while a second seat awaited the counting of provisional and absentee ballots before a winner could be determined.

    In unofficial results early Wednesday, DeWine, an appellate judge from Cincinnati, easily defeated Democrat Cynthia Westcott Rice, an appellate judge from the Warren area, by 56 to 44 percent.

    Republican Pat Fischer, another appellate judge from Cincinnati, led John P. O’Donnell, a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge, by only about 24,000 votes, or 0.6 percent. The secretary of state's office reports roughly 158,000 provisional ballots have yet to be counted and some 103,000 absentee ballots are outstanding.

    Final official results within half a percentage point would trigger an automatic recount.

    In a statement, O'Donnell said: "This race for the Ohio Supreme Court is still too close to call, and there are hundreds of thousands of votes left to be counted. We are confident that when all of the votes are counted we will prevail. This race has always been about having a court that considers the needs of working families and provides justice for all Ohioans, and we are confident that goal will be achieved.”

    DeWine, the son of Attorney General Mike DeWine, and the eventual winner of the second seat will each begin a six-year term early next year.

    They will succeed Republicans Paul Pfeifer and Judith Ann Lanzinger. Pfeifer, the court’s senior justice who has served since 1993, and Lanzinger were barred from seeking re-election because they reached the mandatory judicial retirement age of 70.

    “We’re grateful to the voters of Ohio. We’re humbled. It’s an awesome responsibility,” said DeWine, who spent more than $1 million on his campaign. He drove 110,000 miles and visited all 88 Ohio counties.

    “We emphasized judicial philosophy. We talked about being a judge who applies the law as written and not legislating from the bench. That’s a message that resonated with Ohio voters,” DeWine said.

    Republicans currently dominate the court 6-1, with Justice William O’Neill the lone Democrat.

    Republican Maureen O’Connor, a former lieutenant governor and member of the court since 2003, was unopposed for a second six-year term as chief justice — her last because of the retirement age.

    Races for judgeships are officially nonpartisan and candidate political affiliations do not appear on the ballot, often making the contest more of a name game.

    DeWine’s father has one of the most recognizable ballot names in Ohio as a former congressman, lieutenant governor and U.S. senator. The judge in the family also mounted the most expensive campaign for the high court.

    O’Donnell gained exposure to voters in an unsuccessful race against Republican Judith French in 2014 and an O’Donnell — Republican Terrence, no relation — already sits on the Supreme Court.

    http://www.dispatch.com/content/stor...eme-court.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    Brad King to be interviewed for Florida high court

    The Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission will interview all 11 applicants — including State Attorney Brad King — who are vying to replace Justice James E.C. Perry.

    The justice's forced retirement is giving Gov. Rick Scott the opportunity to make an imprint on the state's high court midway through the governor's second term. Perry, 72, must leave the court because the state Constitution requires justices to retire when they turn 70 years old. The law allows justices like Perry to fulfill the remainder of their terms, depending on when their birthdays fall.

    The nine-member nominating commission unanimously decided Monday to interview all the applicants for the post on Nov. 28. The panel plans to provide Scott a short list of six names that night or the following day, giving the governor plenty of time to make a decision before Perry's resignation goes into effect Dec. 30, according to commission chairman Jason Unger.

    "We wanted to do it a little expeditiously to give him enough time to do his full vetting," Unger told The News Service of Florida in an interview Monday. "In an ideal situation, there'll be no vacancy time. The governor will have his appointee ready to go, and actually start meeting with the court and the court processes, before the vacancy actually hits."

    Perry is among five jurists who make up a liberal-leaning majority of the seven-member court, which has drawn the wrath of the Republican governor and the GOP-dominated Legislature.

    Scott's anticipated appointment of a third conservative to the bench, joining justices Charles Canady and Ricky Polston, "may very well change the way the court has been ruling on cases," former Justice Gerald Kogan told the News Service after Perry announced his resignation in September.

    The selection of a Supreme Court justice can help define a governor's legacy.

    "It is one of those appointments and one of those decisions that a governor makes that has a lasting effect, often times far outlasting their service in the governor's mansion," Unger said Monday.

    Based on their resumes, several of the candidates seeking to replace Perry would bring a decidedly more conservative approach to the bench.

    For example, King, the 5th Judicial Circuit state attorney, has been an outspoken proponent of a new law dealing with the death penalty. In a 5-2 decision last month, the state Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional because it did not require unanimous jury recommendations for the death penalty to be imposed.

    Another candidate, state Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, was just named to a leadership post by incoming House Speaker Richard Corcoran. Metz, a lawyer, was elected to the state House in 2010 and also served on the Lake County School Board.

    Two 5th District Court of Appeal jurists have also applied for the post. One of them — Judge Wendy Berger — once worked as an assistant general counsel for former Gov. Jeb Bush. According to her application, Berger was responsible for advising Bush on death penalty cases, as well as on criminal and civil justice issues. Scott appointed Berger to the appeals court in 2012.

    The appellate court's chief judge, C. Alan Lawson, has also applied. Bush appointed Lawson to the appeals court in 2006.

    Other judges who have applied include 9th Judicial Circuit jurists Alice Blackwell, who has served on the bench since 1991, and Patricia Strowbridge, appointed by Scott in 2015; Judge Michelle Morley of the 5th Judicial Circuit; and Judge Michael Rudisill of the 18th Judicial Circuit.

    The list of applicants also includes Assistant U.S. Attorney Roberta Bodnar, of the Middle District of Florida; Orlando trial lawyer Daniel Gerber; and Sylvia Grunor, a Maitland personal-injury and family-law attorney.

    Perry's replacement will have to be a resident of the area covered by the 5th District Court of Appeal, which stretches across the state from Brevard to Citrus counties and includes counties such as Orange, Volusia, Marion and St. Johns.

    Applicants must also have been a member of The Florida Bar for at least the past 10 years, as required by the state Constitution.

    The panel responsible for whittling down the list of applicants for Scott includes a number of high-profile lawyers tied to Florida Republicans.

    Unger, the chairman, was on the team of lawyers who represented George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the 2000 Florida recount. Unger has also represented the Republican Party of Florida and the GOP-dominated House of Representatives in legal challenges involving redistricting.

    The panel also includes Jesse Panuccio, who formerly served as Scott's general counsel and as the governor's executive director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity; Daniel Nordby, a lawyer who worked for the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Department of State, and is also a former general counsel of the Republican Party of Florida; and Fred Karlinsky, an influential insurance lobbyist with close ties to Scott.

    http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/...ida-high-court
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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Missouri Supreme Court Judge Richard Teitelman dies

    A Missouri Supreme Court spokeswoman said one of the court's judges has died.

    Court spokeswoman Beth Riggert announced Tuesday morning that Judge Richard B. Teitelman, 69, died, but provided no other details.

    Teitelman had served on the court since March 2002 and was chief justice from July 2011 through June 2013. Before joining the Supreme Court he served on the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District for four years.

    The court cancelled oral arguments scheduled for Tuesday. Funeral arrangements are pending.

    Under Missouri's nonpartisan court plan, a special panel will screen applicants for Teitelman's replacement and nominate three candidates to the governor, who then will make an appointment.

    http://www.kmbc.com/article/missouri...n-dies/8375720


    Teitelman was among the majority in the 4-3 ruling in Roper v Simmons

    When Teitelman replaced Judge John Holstein, a Republican appointee, on the Supreme Court, he put judges selected by Democratic governors in the majority for the first time since the mid-1980s.

    The court had been divided 4-3 in favor of Democratic appointees until last month when Holden named Judge Mary Rhodes Russell to replace Judge Duane Benton, giving Democrats a 5-2 advantage.

    Although the court has continued to speak unanimously in most cases, Teitelman helped swing rulings in favor of the Democratic bloc a number of times, particularly in cases involving the death penalty.

    In one such decision that could have national repercussions, the court ruled 4-3 to declare the death penalty unconstitutional for Missouri offenders who were 16 or 17 years old when they committed their crimes. The three Republican appointees then on court dissented, saying the majority effectively and improperly overruled a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court precedent upholding capital punishment for offenders in that age group.

    The federal high court will hear Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon's appeal of that decision on Wednesday. Should that court uphold the Missouri ruling, death sentences for underage offenders could be void nationwide.

    http://www.dddnews.com/story/1078132.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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    Gov Rick Scott Appoints Conservative Alan Lawson For The Florida Supreme Court

    Gov. Rick Scott appointed C. Alan Lawson to be Florida’s next justice of the Supreme Court Friday, choosing a conservative appellate judge to leave the governor’s mark on a moderate court that has been responsible for some of sharpest defeats of his political career.

    Lawson, who currently serves as the chief judge on the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach fills the seat on the seven-member court that is being vacated by Justice James E.C. Perry, a liberal jurist who is retiring at the end of the month because he has reached the mandatory retirement age. Perry was the the fourth African-American jurist to serve on Florida’s high court. Lawson, who lives in the Orlando suburb of Winter Park, is white.

    Perry, who was appointed to the bench in March 2009 by former Gov. Charlie Crist, must retire because of a state law requiring justices to retire on their 70th birthday or the end of their six-year term if they are halfway through the term. Perry turned 70 in January 2015 but his term ends Jan. 3, 2017.

    Scott said he chose Lawson for his 20-year track record, his public service and because “he’s not going to legislate from the bench.”

    The governor was given three names to choose from by the Judicial Nominating Commission to make his first pick to the state’s high court. In addition to Lawson, the finalists were Wendy Berger, a 5th District Court of Appeal judge, and Daniel J. Gerber, of the Orlando office of the law firm Rumberger, Kirk and Caldwell.

    The governor’s appointment is the final step in the process of naming a new justice. There is no requirement that appointments be confirmed by the Legislature.

    Lawson’s appointment to the seven-member bench will allow the governor to add another justice to the court’s conservative minority, now comprised of Justices Charles Canady and Ricky Polston but it is not expected to tip the ideological balance. The other justices — Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince and Chief Justice Jorge Labarga — are considered moderates.

    Among the defeats the court has handed Scott and the Republican-led Legislature are rulings that threw out the state’s congressional and state Senate redistricting plans, the Legislature’s rewrite of the death penalty statute and invalidated the Legislature’s rewrite of the state’s workers compensation system.

    Lawson, 55, has served as a circuit judge, appellate judge and prior to that as a trial lawyer. He applied for two Supreme Court openings in 2008 and was passed over for Perry by then-Gov. Charlie Crist.

    http://wlrn.org/post/gov-rick-scott-...-supreme-court
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    Exiting justice rails on 'discriminatory' death penalty

    In what might have been his last word on the issue as a member of the Florida Supreme Court, Justice James E.C. Perry on Thursday rendered a blistering analysis of the manner in which the death penalty is carried out in Florida.

    Perry's 10-page dissent in the case of Mark James Asay came eight days before his constitutionally mandated retirement from the court on Dec. 30.

    The Columbia Law School graduate referred to his pending departure in the dissent in a highly anticipated decision about the application of a seminal U.S. Supreme Court ruling early this year in a case known as Hurst v. Florida. The Hurst decision, premised on a 2002 ruling in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, found that Florida's system of allowing judges, instead of juries, to find the facts necessary to impose the death penalty was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury.

    The Florida court on Thursday decided that the Hurst ruling should apply to all cases that were finalized after the 2002 Ring opinion --- but not to cases, such as Asay, that were finalized before Ring. The effect will be that Death Row inmates sentenced after Ring will be able to seek new sentencing hearings while those in earlier cases, like Asay, will not.

    But, in a blistering condemnation of the death penalty in general, Perry disagreed, calling the majority's decision "arbitrary" and one which "cannot withstand scrutiny under the Eighth Amendment" because it creates two groups of similarly situated persons.

    "Coupled with Florida's troubled history in applying the death penalty in a discriminatory manner, I believe that such an application is unconstitutional," wrote Perry.

    In a footnote, Perry, who is black, wrote that he is "aware of the irony" of discussing discrimination in the context of the case of Asay, who would be the first white person to be executed for killing a black victim in Florida.

    "It does not escape me that Mark Asay is a terrible bigot whose hate crimes are some of the most deplorable this state has seen in recent history," Perry wrote. "However, it is my sworn duty to uphold the Constitution of this state and of these United States and not to ensure retribution against those whose crimes I find personally offensive."

    More than 70 percent of Florida prisoners who have been executed were black men whose victims were white, Perry wrote.

    "This sad statistic is a reflection of the bitter reality that the death penalty is applied in a biased and discriminatory fashion, even today," he wrote.

    Because of his impending retirement, Perry wrote that he felt "compelled to follow other justices who, in the twilight of their judicial careers, determined to no longer 'tinker with the machinery of death.' "

    Thursday's majority decision not to apply the Hurst decision to all of the nearly 400 inmates on Death Row "leads me to declare that I no longer believe that there is a method of which the state can avail itself to impose the death penalty in a constitutional manner," Perry wrote, adding that he would find that the Hurst ruling "applies retroactively, period."

    Perry pointed out that the Florida court took a different approach to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that found life sentences for juveniles violated Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Florida justices said that decision should apply retroactively.

    In contrast, the majority on Thursday "decides that in capital cases where the Sixth Amendment rights of hundreds of persons were violated, it is appropriate to arbitrarily draw a line between June 23 and June 24, 2002 --- the day before and the day after Ring was decided," Perry wrote.

    The majority opinion treats 173 inmates whose sentences were final prior to Ring differently from the others on Death Row, which Perry said was unconstitutional.

    The majority, in part, objected that requiring resentencing for all of the state's 386 Death Row inmates would create a substantial burden on the judicial system.

    But Perry wrote that the court could easily resolve the situation by vacating all of the death sentences and imposing life in prison without parole, something he has repeatedly insisted Florida law requires if the state's death penalty has been found unconstitutional.

    "In other words, this court has rejected an available remedy that creates no burden but then pronounces that the burden is far too great to provide equal application to similarly situated defendants," he wrote.

    Defendants who committed offenses at an earlier date but had their sentences vacated and were later resentenced will now be eligible for resentencing again, Perry wrote.

    "The majority's application of Hurst v. Florida makes constitutional protection depend on little more than a roll of the dice. This cannot be tolerated," he wrote.

    Perry, appointed in 2009 by former Gov. Charlie Crist, is among five jurists who make up a liberal-leaning majority of the seven-member court, which has drawn the wrath of the Republican governor and the GOP-dominated Legislature. Other members of that bloc are Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince.

    Perry --- who said he decided to become a lawyer the night civil-rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated --- became Seminole County's first black judge after being appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush. After graduating from Columbia Law School, Perry returned to the South and went to work for Georgia Indigent Legal Services.

    Perry, 72, is forced to leave the court because the state Constitution requires justices to retire when they turn 70 years old. The law also allows justices like Perry to fulfill the remainder of their terms, depending on when their birthdays fall.

    Karen Gottlieb, co-director of the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University's College of Law, called Perry's opinion "both powerful and true."

    Courts must rely on "the evolving standards of decency" when deciding whether capital punishment violates Eighth Amendment bans on cruel and unusual punishment.

    "I do think we are evolving. The arbitrariness of the death penalty is underscored today on the basis of timing. Some will die, and some will have the benefit of a new constitutional sentencing proceeding. I think the arbitrariness is solidifying the whole notion that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment," she said.

    http://www.news4jax.com/news/exiting...-death-penalty
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    Texas Judge Elsa Alcala, Who Criticized Death Penalty, Won't Seek Reelection

    Judge Elsa Alcala, who sits on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, announced Thursday that she will not seek reelection.

    Alcala, perhaps best known for her passionate dissenting opinions and for expressing deep concern about how Texas carries out the death penalty, will remain on the bench until her term ends in 2018. Announcing her decision on Twitter, the Republican judge said she decided not to seek re-election because she did not want to scrounge the resources and energy to mount another statewide judicial election.

    "Although I have been fortunate in that I have repeatedly been elected or reelected by the public," she wrote, "I believe that the results from partisan judicial elections are too random and unreliable for me to engage in this process for a fifth time. I have seen too many qualified judges lose their bids for election or reelection, and I have witnessed the converse situation too."

    Judicial elections have historically been the subject of debate given many voters don't pay much attention to judicial candidates — even though judges wield immense power in deciding people's fates and setting precedents affecting future cases. Statewide campaigns can be expensive despite the chance that they may be arbitrary or, as Alcala noted, "random and unreliable." Alcala, appointed to the high court in 2011 by Governor Rick Perry, said she would rather spend the time with family.

    "For me to run a statewide partisan campaign in the manner that would be required for my reelection, I would be compelled to undertake extensive travel and spend many nights away from my family that includes three teenagers in high school," she wrote. "This is too high a personal cost for my family at this juncture."

    Alcala, who has been called a "voice in the wilderness" on the high court, made waves this summer after writing in a dissenting opinion that she had "great concern" about capital punishment in Texas. Though never conclusively saying whether she believes the death penalty is itself constitutional or not, Alcala raised three key reasons as to why it should be challenged in Texas.

    For one, the inmate, who was black, had spent 20 years in solitary confinement, "in a small individual cell with little human contact," which Alcala said "could rise to the level of cruel and unusual punishment. Secondly, noting that 72 percent of inmates on death row are black and that the country has a clear history of racial discrimination, she said "I have no doubt that race has been an improper consideration in particular death-penalty cases. And on top of it, she noted the "evolving standards of decency" across the nation when determining whether a punishment is cruel and unusual.

    In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing two death penalty cases in which Alcala dissented. In the case of Bobby James Moore, she concluded that it was "constitutionally unacceptable" to measure intellectual disabilities using outdated standards no longer accepted by medical professionals. And in the case of Duane Buck, who is black, Alcala blasted her colleagues' decision to deny Buck a new trial despite the fact that racially charged testimony was used in his sentencing hearing; a doctor, invoking Buck's race, said he would be a "future danger" to society.

    Alcala, a former Harris County state district judge, said in her statement that she wanted to make the announcement now so that any candidates wanting to take her place could begin preparing their campaigns well in advance. She said she is undecided about what she will do next — but made clear that she is not "retiring."

    http://www.houstonpress.com/news/tex...ection-9067899
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    Florida Supreme Court justice steps down

    Justice James E.C. Perry nestled a box of mementos under his arm, pulled his black robe off the hook in his Tallahassee office overlooking a grove of live oak trees, and left his corner office in Florida's Supreme Court for the last time two weeks ago.

    Perry's nearly eight-year career on the state's highest court ended Friday. He is forced to retire because, at 72, he has reached Florida's mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices.

    The trail-blazing child of Jim Crow segregation, describes his time on the bench simply: "I kept it real," he said with a characteristic belly laugh.

    He leaves with no regrets and plenty to say. One of his last acts on the court was to author a blistering dissent in a seminal death penalty ruling last week in the case of Mark James Asay. As the court majority upheld the death penalty in dozens of cases prior to 2002, Perry declared that it was an uneven and "discriminatory" application of capital punishment and left the state's constitutional protections to "little more than a roll of the dice."

    "I no longer believe that there is a method of which the State can avail itself to impose the death penalty in a constitutional manner," Perry wrote in a 10-page dissent.

    In many ways, the proclamation was not only a parting shot at one of the most vexing issues before the court, but the culmination of a career by someone shaped in an era he calls "apartheid America" who continues to be pelted by the arrows of racism today.

    "There's a reason the people who led the nation in lynching of black people also lead in electrocutions," Perry said in an interview with the Herald/Times. There's a nexus there."

    http://www.newschief.com/news/201612...ice-steps-down
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  10. #10
    Moderator Dave from Florida's Avatar
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    Good riddance.

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