State Attorney candidates tangle at Jacksonville Tiger Bay

Fourth Circuit State Attorney Angela Corey debated fellow Republican challengers Wes White and Melissa Nelson Friday at the First Coast Tiger Bay meeting.

Among the topics addressed: administration of the death penalty; the backlog of appeals in the public defender’s office; Nelson’s diverse base of donors; Stand Your Ground defenses; Corey’s alleged penchant for “overcharging” defendants; and the right approach to handling low-level drug crimes.

The pyrotechnics of previous forums involving this trio were largely absent, as each candidate made a sober presentation with a minimal amount of ad hominem attack.

The introductory remarks covered familiar territory. Corey extolled her office’s record. Nelson countered by asserting “the election is about character” and not about “endorsements.” And White, who had backed Corey in 2008 and gotten appointed to head up the Nassau County office thereafter, said he saw a “slow-motion train wreck” unfolding when in that role, related to everything from the George Zimmerman trial to someone being held 589 days without trial.

White, who has targeted Nelson since she got into the race, described her as “Angela Corey 2.0,” albeit without the incumbent’s “management skills.”

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From there, discussion moved to the Shelby Farah case, where the State Attorney’s Office pursued the death penalty over the express wishes of the victim’s mother.

“What troubles me,” said Nelson, is “what we’ve seen in the media,” with the mother, Darlene Farah, writing an article in Time magazine to voice her objection on a “national stage,” only to be “ridiculed and dismissed by the state attorney.”

This led, soon enough, into a more holistic discussion of the death penalty, which is complicated by a preponderance of pending death notices and an estimated $50 million a year in costs of post-conviction litigation.

Corey defended her office’s pursuit of the ultimate penalty, saying “prosecution is law enforcement” and the need is to “fix the appellate process” rather than “back down.”

Nelson diverged from this viewpoint, saying the prosecution is “never required by law to seek the death penalty,” and that the SAO is required to make “fiscally wise prosecutorial decisions” that don’t “disregard the impact on taxpayer dollars.”

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From there, discussion eventually moved to the backlog of cases in the public defender’s office, which led to White attacking Nelson on her robust contributor base.

“Should a candidate for state attorney accept contributions from the criminal defense bar? I would not accept contributions,” said White,  from potential opponents in the courtroom.

White then asserted a coalition of criminal defense lawyers, Democrats, and the wealthy “want the keys to the courthouse.”

After the event, Nelson addressed this charge in conversation with FloridaPolitics.com.

“They want the ‘key to the courthouse’; what does that even mean? What are they buying? There’s nothing they can buy but change,” Nelson said.

Nelson notes she has supporters who have donated big money to her political committee, “First Coast Values,” along with supporters who have given as little as $10.

“People from all walks of life,” said Nelson, “are looking for change” and contributors are motivated by “the principles I stand for.”

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Stand Your Ground was a topic also, with discussion focused on the case of Ronald Thompson, a disabled veteran in Clay County who fired four warning shots into the ground when he’d heard people breaking into his home.

The case, which got national publicity for what many saw as an egregious example of overcharging, elicited criticism from White and Nelson both.

White said Stand Your Ground “didn’t work for [Thompson].” Nelson said Stand Your Ground, a “codification of the common law right to self-defense,” was undermined by Corey’s office deciding to pursue the maximum.

“It comes down to discretion,” Nelson said, and “the state attorney has the power to make decisions.”

Corey, meanwhile, accused her opponents of “hopping from one headline to another,” and said Thompson “chose to put faith in a jury.”

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The closed primary came up also, with a questioner saying Democrats were “up in arms” over the closed Republican primary for the office.

Corey, whose previous campaign manager filed the paperwork for the write-in who closed the primary, noted that “Democrats have been [closing primaries] for years,” and she’s not sure why now it’s an issue.

“I wish those 400,000 people all voted,” Corey added, “because voting records don’t show it.”

Nelson went on the offense.

“It’s about accountability,” Nelson said, and the Corey campaign “behaved in the same way her office behaved,” trafficking in political “gamesmanship.”

“She has yet to own the responsibility … for the political trick to close the primary.”

Corey rebutted with equal energy.

“It’s interesting that Melissa Nelson calls it a political trick. I didn’t have anything to do with it,” Corey said, and “the people involved got sued.”

“I found out that Thursday night and found out later that Alex went to Tallahassee.”

Readers with memories will recall FloridaPolitics.com had also found out that Thursday night, and spent a few days attempting to get comment from the suddenly reticent campaign manager, Alexander Pantinakis.

On Monday, we asked Corey about it, and she denied knowledge. Then, after a few hours, Pantinakis took the heat from filing an opponent’s paperwork, which led to a legal challenge that is still ongoing.

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The discussion moved then to low-level drug crimes, which a questioner believed was a consequence of the “failed War on Drugs.”

Jacksonville is the largest city in the state to not consider decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana.

Corey defended her office’s posture, saying “statistics show that if someone went to prison,” it was “not just possession,” with firearm use and distribution generally being the drivers to incarceration.

Corey’s opponents disagreed.

“The jail is loaded with low-level offenders,” said White, who referred to the “industry of incarceration.”

Nelson extolled the virtues of “alternative sentencing,” urged a “conversation about the role of prosecutors in public safety,” and said the State Attorney “has a platform to harness nonprofit resources toward alternative sentencing.”

The candidates have multiple forums next week around Jacksonville.