Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

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 PowersJune 1, 2017

Orlando’s reform-pledging yet controversial State Attorney Aramis Ayala defended her anti-death penalty position as “evidence based” and charged that the Florida Legislature’s $1.3 million cut to her budget will hamper anti-human trafficking and domestic violence prosecutions. In a feature published Thursday morning by Orlando-Rising.com, a sister website to FloridaPolitics.com, the rookie state attorney representing Florida’s […]

Mitch PerryMay 23, 2017

Floridians interested in crime and the criminal justice system in their own communities have a new tool at their disposal. At 9 a.m. Tuesday, the nonprofit Measures for Justice (MFJ) launched a first-of-its-kind Data Portal seeking to bring transparency to the criminal justice process — from arrest to post-conviction at the county level — throughout Florida and other […]

Mitch PerryMay 22, 2017

In recent years, criminal justice reform, especially in drug sentencing, has taken on more momentum, with governors in some of most conservative parts of the country embracing such efforts. In Florida, progressive State Attorney candidates like Andrew Warren in Tampa and Aramis Ayala in Orlando won their respective races last year by running on a similar […]

Scott PowersMay 9, 2017

In her new response to Gov. Rick Scott‘s argument in their Supreme Court battle over power, Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala contends that the Florida Constitution is clear that she has absolute power over all criminal cases in her jurisdiction, and that the governor can only override it with her permission. The issue is whether […]

Scott PowersMay 4, 2017

In a friend of the court brief bound to raise state attorneys’ eyebrows throughout Florida, the Florida House is arguing that prosecutors have no discretion with regard to capital punishment, that the state Legislature’s intent was to rest all discretion with juries. The House filed the brief in the Florida Supreme Court case of Orlando’s State Attorney […]

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 […]

Martin DyckmanApril 30, 2017

The courtroom at the Florida Supreme Court seats 164, which may not be enough for all the attorneys, organizations and individuals who have intervened in the unprecedented case of Aramis Ayala v. Rick Scott. Six groups have weighed in as friends of the court on behalf of Ayala, the state attorney for Orange and Seminole […]

Scott PowersApril 27, 2017

Gov. Rick Scott together with Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a 60-page response to Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala‘s charge that he overstepped his authority in reassigning her cases, contending Ayala has asked him to reassign other cases, and that her argument of “prosecutorial discretion” is actually one seeking no discretion. Scott’s response, filed late […]

Scott PowersApril 26, 2017

The Florida Supreme Court denied the first attempt by Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala to win back first-degree murder cases that Gov. Rick Scott reassigned to another state attorney. In denying Ayala’s emergency, non-routine petition to overturn Scott’s executive orders reassigning the cases to Ocala’s State Attorney Brad King, the Supreme Court concluded that the […]

Tag: Aramis Ayala
Crowds gather to see Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. (Gabrielle Russon)

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

Aramis Ayala defends death penalty position, asserts budget cut will hit key programs

New national website gives data on how justice is served in every Florida county

Andrew Warren and Aramis Ayala blast Jeff Sessions plan for stricter sentencing in criminal cases

Aramis Ayala argues that Rick Scott can only reassign cases with consent

House argues prosecutors have no discretion on death penalties

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

Martin Dyckman: Florida needs answers on death penalty discretion

Rick Scott, Pam Bondi answer Aramis Ayala’s suit: she’s not practicing discretion

Supreme Court denies Aramis Ayala’s first writ to win back cases Rick Scott reassigned