Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Scott PowersNovember 20, 2017

New twists in the battle between Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala and Gov. Rick Scott after she agreed to prosecute death penalty cases; Scott is accusing her of missing a filing deadline, and Ayala responding Monday that Scott missed the case, and it will still be filed for capital punishment. “It is absolutely outrageous that Aramis […]

Scott PowersAugust 31, 2017

Gov. Rick Scott has the authority to transfer murder cases away from the office of Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala because she refuses to pursue capital punishments, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Ayala greeted the ruling by declaring she was changing her policy, and would set up a special panel to review the death penalty […]

Scott PowersAugust 31, 2017

Two more Orange County murder cases, including one dating to the early 1990s and one from this spring, are being stripped from Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala, with Gov. Rick Scott reassigning the prosecutions to State Attorney Brad King of Ocala. Scott signed two executive orders late Wednesday, reassigning the murder cases of Jermaine A. Foster, […]

Scott PowersJune 6, 2017

Attorneys for Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala and Gov. Rick Scott will give their oral arguments on June 28 in the legal battle over the death penalty in Florida’s 9th Congressional District. Each side is being given 20 minutes that day in oral arguments in the case that both sides and multiple friends of the […]

Scott PowersMay 3, 2017

“Unlike every other amici in this litigation, the Family Members’ right to be heard is not hypothetical, it is not philosophical, it is not past – it is real and present.” Thus opens a friend of the court brief filed Wednesday by the families of victims of seven homicides in the balance of the Florida […]

Scott PowersApril 21, 2017

Friends of the court are beginning to crowd into the Florida Supreme Court case pitting Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala and Gov. Rick Scott, with families of homicide victims siding with Scott, and the ACLU and House Minority Leader Janet Cruz siding with Ayala on Friday. Several filings Friday are loading the case with friends. Also Friday, a group […]

Scott PowersApril 17, 2017

State budget cuts the Florida Legislature is aiming at Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala‘s office could slice up to $1.3 million and 21 staff members yet there is dispute over how much she’ll need that money and staff to prosecute criminal cases in Orange and Osceola counties. Her office currently has 55 open jobs out […]

Scott PowersApril 11, 2017

Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala‘s office would take a much smaller budget hit this year under a compromise worked out by state Sen. Randolph Bracy and Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala Tuesday. Both the Florida Senate and the Florida House of Representatives have been pursuing budget proposals that would have cut at least $1.3 million […]

Scott PowersApril 11, 2017

Arguing Gov. Rick Scott had no legal basis to strip murder cases from her jurisdiction, Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala filed challenges Tuesday morning in both the Florida Supreme Court and federal court. In complaints filed by her attorney, Roy Austin Jr. of Washington D.C., Ayala contends that she legally exercised prosecutorial discretion in deciding not […]

Scott PowersApril 10, 2017

A new poll by Public Policy Polling finds that a strong majority of voters in State Attorney Aramis Ayala‘s Orange and Osceola counties prefer some form of life-in-prison sentence for first-degree murderers rather than the death penalty. The poll, commissioned by the Center for Capital Representation at the Florida International University College of Law, finds results that […]

Tag: 9th Judicial Circuit

Rick Scott, Aramis Ayala battle over missed deadlines in death penalty cases

High court backs Rick Scott, Aramis Ayala vows new policy

Rick Scott reassigns two more murder cases from Aramis Ayala

Supreme Court sets oral arguments in Aramis Ayala-Rick Scott case

Victims’ families: Aramis Ayala shut us out; prosecutors group: She abolished capital punishment

Families of homicide victims, ACLU, Janet Cruz join filers in Aramis Ayala case

Aramis Ayala’s staff build up raises questions about whether she has enough

Randolph Bracy, Jack Latvala reach compromise on Senate cut to Aramis Ayala’s office

Aramis Ayala files challenges of Rick Scott with Florida Supreme Court, federal court

PPP poll finds Orange, Osceola counties prefer life punishment to death sentence