JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Monday, July 16, 2007

CHANGES IN FEDERAL COURT. NEW CHIEF JUDGE IN BROWARD TOMORROW!

Laptops and cellphones in Federal Court? Posting plea deals on line?
Making the court more accessible and user friendly?

All this and more is being promised by new Chief Federal Federico Moreno in a
DBR INTERVIEW

BROWARD GOES TO THE POLLS TOMORROW


And speaking of new chief Judges, we get a new one tomorrow in Broward, as those wacky fun-loving, gift receiving group of jurists meets to elect a new Pope…err…Chief. Look for the white smoke coming from 201 SE 6th street in a time honored ceremony announcing the new Judge. The new Judge will then be escorted out of the courtroom, where grateful lawyer vying for favors and court appointments will throw gift cards loaded with money redeemable at the local malls.


THE FEDS ARE NOT SUPERSTITIOUS

The Federal Blog reported that the Government rested it’s case against Padilla and his co-defendants on Friday the Thirteenth. Assistant United States Attorney Russ Killinger made the announcement before the jury while standing under a ladder, holding an opened umbrella in one hand and a black cat in the other. We shall see how the government’s tempting of fate flies in this matter. Mr. Markus had some interesting points on his blog about how lawyers speak in the third person future in court. (“The government will rest our case” etc.) We are from the plain speaking school – The Defense Rests. Period.


CASE DISMISSED.

And speaking of the Feds, we came across this nice ruling from Federal District Court Judge Lewis A Kaplan of the Southern District of New York. Judge Kaplan dismissed charges against 13 defendants in a wide ranging prosecution of KPMG former employees for use of illegal tax shelters. The Government had pressured KPMG to reverse its long standing policy of paying for the legal fees of its employees. With the government choking off the legal fees, and thus their choice of counsel, the Judge dismissed the case.

Such pressure, Judge Kaplan wrote, “foreclosed these defendants from presenting the defenses they wished to present and, in some cases, even deprived them of counsel of their choice. This is intolerable in a society that holds itself out to the world as a paragon of justice. The responsibility for the dismissal of this indictment as to thirteen defendants lies with the government.”

What we like about the ruling is the line about a society that holds itself out to the world as a paragon of justice. It echo’s the recent dissent of Justice David Souter in Bowles v. Russell, decided this term: “it is intolerable for the judicial system to treat people this way.” He added, “There is not even a technical justification for condoning this bait and switch.”


Lets get off the bandwagon of this Country having the greatest system of Justice in the world. We have a Justice System that has blatantly stated that there is no problem with innocent people remaining in prison if they do not meet the myriad of requirement necessary for a hearing when there is newly discovered evidence. We have a justice system that tolerates convictions in death penalty cases where the attorney for the defendant was sleeping, so long as he was not sleeping during the important parts. And for that matter, we have a justice system that still has the death penalty, which puts us in the company of China, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.

The bottom line is our justice system was founded on great ideals and currently operates in a manner that is oppressive, confusing, and draconian. Thanks goodness we have a President courageous enough to stand up to these draconian prison sentences, as he recently did for Scooter Libby. But enough with this “best in the world” crap. Our system is far from the best in the world, and there are tens of thousands of victims of injustice at the hands of our system to prove it. The problem is not that mistakes are made, the problem is that judges and legislators are just not that bothered over rules that lend themselves to results like those in Bowles, or where innocent people remain incarcerated and nothing can be done about it.

See you in court, not tooting our system of justice’s horn.

13 comments:

Rumpole said...

My initial inclination is to NOT post the PD salaries. First, I do not have a document I have an email in which any numbers could be written.
Second, the numbers are public record and dissemenating them here would merely be my furtherance of someone's attempt to embarass someone else. I don't know, I'm still up in the air here, help me out.

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute,


Aren't 50% of the comments on this blog a furtherance of "someone's attempt to embarass someone else?"

Anonymous said...

Your father did business with the Q
Your father respected the Q (rule 2- respect the Q)
But your father never trusted the Q...or his Sicilian hit man breath boy Jonny No Slope.

Anonymous said...

Actually Rumpy de la Rump o rumper, watching GFII I never really understood this- who was behind the hit on Michael at his house in Nevada, and who then killed the hit men on his property?

Thanks. If anyone can help me on this, it is your loyal readers.

Anonymous said...

troy davis given a 90 day reprieve

Anonymous said...

In a free country we have whats called a blog. We have a editor of a blog who chooses not to identify himself. We have a blog that allows rumor, lies and gossip.

Rump get a grip and post the darn email earnings like anyone will truly think any of the info is fact.

What sane person will actually (with the exception of Barnaby Min) takes this crap to heart.

Anonymous said...

FYI, Rump, the PD salary list has been floating around the office for awhile now. I say post the list. But, if you're worried about accuracy, ask the person who sent it to you to scan a copy of the original and email that document to you. Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

I am a current PD Rump, and I would be interested in seeing the salaries. I have a sneaking suspicion that some are getting paid much more than others, and not deservedly so.

Anonymous said...

As to the hit, I thought it was the combination of Frankie Pentangeli and Hyman Roth with the assist from Fredo (thought Fredo didn't know they were trying to kill Michael).

Anonymous said...

If you remember the scene in Cuba on New Years Eve where Michael kissed Fredo and said "I knew it was you, you broke my heart," that is where Michael tells Fredo he knows he was involved in the hit at his house. When Fredo comes back from Cuba, he and Michael meet in the boat house and Fredo tries to apologize by saying "I didn't know it was going to be a hit Mikey."

So the answer to who was behind the hit, is FREDO.

Who killed the guys who tried to kill Michael? Michael's security guys.

And now, if there's nothing else, I'd like to go to my daughter's wedding.

Rumpole said...

The Aye's have it. The list is published in the last comments section where it was sent.

I received several emails public and private and all of them were in favor of the list being published. I'm not 100% happy about it as I worry the blog could be used to hurt or attack people, but here it is (or rather there it is) in the comments section of the last post.

Anonymous said...

The White Smoke has been seen from 201 SE 6th Street. It's Judge Tobin by nine votes.

Rumpole said...

I changed my mind. I took it down. Just because I CAN do something, doesn't mean I have to do it. The spirit behind that list is malicious. I do not run this blog to hurt and humiliate people. I run the blog to discuss issues. The issues of PD salaries MAY be relevant. Say if a new PD gets elected and promotes his girlfriend from county court to the highest paying position. But to begrudge someone a decent living when they have spent their career at public service is wrong. The list being on the blog didn't feel right to me and in the end, I am the one that needs to be able to sleep at night and respect myself, so I took it down. Sorry. You can form a web page and publish that list yourself in about two minutes.