By Dan Christensen
FloridaBulldog.org
Every day, state prisoners flood Florida’s courts with appeals and pleadings about their cases that they’ve written themselves. Those pro se filings – Latin for “on his own behalf” – rarely get far. This spring, however, an inmate sex offender serving a life sentence convinced the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal that a Broward judge erred when she failed to order prosecutors to explain potentially serious discrepancies about his Miranda rights warning form.
By Broward Public Defenders FloridaBulldog.org Josh Stein, a mentally troubled man of 38, died of an apparent accidental drug overdose the day after Christmas. Broward’s elected public defender, Howard Finkelstein, says Stein’s death can be traced to anxiety and stress caused by “cattle car justice” meted out in Broward’s Felony Mental Health Court.
By Dan Christensen
BrowardBulldog.org
Florida’s chief justice has ordered the state’s 20 chief judges to monitor the work of each judge in their circuit looking for goof-offs – a move that’s unnerved judges in South Florida and elsewhere.
By Dan Christensen
BrowardBulldog.org
Concerned that the sheriff’s office has altered the terms of misdemeanor probation orders without informing judges, Broward’s top county court judge has called a meeting of judges for next week to assess what’s happening.
By Howard Finkelstein
Special to BrowardBulldog.org
Editor’s note: Broward’s public defender writes to the chief judge to say the county’s mental health is backwards, cruel and unnecessarily costly and urges Broward to follow Miami-Dade’s lead.
By Dan Christensen
BrowardBulldog.org
Fort Lauderdale resident Christopher Wayne Thurlow was adjudged guilty last April of misdemeanor battery and violating a restraining order. His sentence: 12 months of reporting probation – that is, to appear personally once a month before a probation officer. But that’s not what happened.
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