Florida Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Mere hours after an independent fact-finder was appointed to look into potential allegations of poor conditions and cruel treatment at a trio of South Florida immigration detention centers, a federal judge in Miami reversed the order without giving a reason.

After filing an eight-page order, the U.S. District Court Judge named an investigator to evaluate whether officials of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have breached prior court orders intended to prevent cases of coronavirus. Among what was mentioned in the order, the judge noted that a continuing inability to provide prisoners with the minimum provisions and resources to survive the pandemic is proof of intentional indifference to medical needs, and is tantamount to administering cruel and unusual punishment as it raises the likelihood of exposure to a deadly and highly infectious disease.

The initial order is part of a current litigation suit demanding the release of more than 1,000 U.S. Immigration and Detained Customs Enforcement.

The House Judiciary Committee has taken a bold approach towards tackling issues such as racial profiling by introducing the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act. The act will set a national standard for police department activities and require the aggregation of data on police incidents. Should it turn into a law, the bill will reprogram current funding to invest in new community-based policing services and formalize federal legislation to prosecute excessive force and set up autonomous police oversight attorneys. The act will also get rid of warrants for no-knock, and prohibit chokeholds.

A few of the items outlined in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 includes requiring all law enforcement on the federal, state, and local level from racial or religious profiling, requiring training, and also requiring that deadly force be used solely as a last resort after de-escalation techniques have been employed. The act also places limits on military equipment on streets, it will require the use of body cameras, and pushes for investigating police misconduct. Furthermore, conspiring to violate current hate crime laws would be deemed a federal crime.

To read more, please visit https://www.miamitimesonline.com/news/ground-breaking-george-floyd-justice-in-policing-act/article_a6ab023e-b620-11ea-ac13-4b46b1cb2385.html.

A federal judge recently refused to delay his decision which would allow numerous Florida felons who have completed prison or jail sentences to register to vote and participate in the 2020 elections.

Last month, in a dispute over a 2019 state law, the judge ruled against the DeSantis administration aimed regarding a constitutional amendment to renew the voting rights of felons who have satisfied the terms of their sentences. To be able to vote, the law required felons to pay legal financial obligations such as court costs and fines associated with their convictions. The judge’s decision, however, said Florida cannot withhold the right to vote to felons who are truly incapable of paying financial obligations ordered by the court.

The federal judge also ruled that court fines and fees are also “taxes” aimed at financing government programs, and the obligation to pay them to vote is an illegal “poll tax.” Determining that most of the Florida felons who have served their time cannot settle unpaid court debts, the judge set out a mechanism the state can use so that felons can register and vote.

Democrats in Congress are spearheading a revision of the police process and responsibility following the mass protests that have happened throughout the globe.

The Justice in Police Act is one of Congress’s most aggressive law enforcement reforms in years and addresses many police facets that have come under intense scrutiny, especially nowadays when cell phones have made it much easier to share videos and quickly circulate them around the country and the rest of the world.

Based on the act, the federal civil rights statute regulating police misconduct will no longer allow prosecutors to prove willful acts by an officer, a heavy standard of evidence. The law will require charges against an officer for behaving with reckless disregard for the life of another, causing the death of the individual.

Officials in Florida and the National Rifle Association (NRA) are requesting that a federal judge drop mediation ordered by the court regarding a lawsuit that seeks to challenge a 2018 state law prohibiting guns from being bought by people below the age of 21.

The ban was part of a new law passed in reaction to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The gunman is accused of allegedly using a semi-automatic weapon to take the lives of more than fifteen students and faculty members.

The legislation raised the age to buy firearms such as rifles and shotguns, from 18 to 21. According to court records, a federal statute also barred licensed weapons dealers from selling handguns to people below the age 21, and the state law extended it to also prohibit private sales of handguns to individuals under 21.

A federal judge in Florida recently made a momentous decision that may cause a ripple effect as election season looms closer. The judge recently ruled unconstitutional a state law mandating felons to pay any outstanding court fines and fees they may have before they would be allowed to vote. The decision brings countless felons who have completed all prison terms including probation and parole closer to having their right to vote restored.

The case at the center of the decision is the result of a 2018 constitutional amendment by Florida voters that received strong approval. The amendment overturned a law more than 100 years old which permanently disenfranchised people that may have been convicted of a felony. Supporters embraced the result as the nation’s biggest expansion of the right to vote in years. However, Florida’s governor signed a bill seven months later confining the law solely to individuals who had paid the debt(s) they owed to the court.

To read more, visit https://www.npr.org/2020/05/24/861776313/federal-judge-rules-florida-law-restricting-voting-rights-for-felons-unconstitut.

An inmate currently serving time in Miami-Dade jail is drawing attention after testing positive for COVID-19. A federal judge noted that the inmate appears to be adequately isolated, but she also ordered the parties to address alleged claims of insufficient care and why a hearing on bond revocation has not been held in state court.

A U.S. district judge in Miami has decided to wait on ruling on an emergency motion for the prisoner to be released immediately on bail, who is the designated plaintiff in a pending class action calling for medically disabled prisoners to be released from a detention center in Miami-Dade County. The judge also says that she was not yet able to answer the appeal for release on a habeas corpus writ from the inmates.

To read more about the case, please visit https://www.law360.com/articles/1274423/federal-court-won-t-release-miami-inmate-with-covid-19.