Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

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 […]

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 19, 2017

The Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association – which represents the states’s 20 state attorneys including Orlando’s Aramis Ayala – will be filing an amicus brief against her and supporting Gov. Rick Scott‘s power to reassign state attorneys’ cases. The association filed a motion Wednesday morning requesting the chance to weigh in as a friend of the […]

Jenna Buzzacco-FoersterApril 12, 2017

The Florida House rebuffed an attempt to include proviso language in the budget for a report on the “imposition and execution of capital punishment” in Florida. The amendment, put forward by Rep. Sharon Pritchett, called for the state to use money to fund a report from the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability […]

Scott PowersApril 11, 2017

Among material filed Tuesday with Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala‘s Florida Supreme Court challenge of Gov. Rick Scott‘s executive orders stripping cases from her is a year-old letter from his office affirming her position – that her prosecutorial decisions cannot be overridden. Ayala’s attorneys Roy Austin Jr. of Washington D.C. and Marcos Hasbun of Tampa included the […]

Guest AuthorApril 11, 2017

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For so long, prosecutors have repeated the mantra that the death penalty is needed for murder victims’ families and to provide them justice. This idea developed into an unquestioned assumption that guided many district attorneys in handling cases and crafting campaign messages. Yet the recent announcement by State Attorney Aramis Ayala of Orlando, Florida, to […]

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 […]

Scott PowersApril 7, 2017

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is declining to file a challenge supporting Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala against Gov. Rick Scott and may intervene to oppose anything Ayala files. That sets the stage for Ayala to likely present her challenge early next week, seeking to get a judge to declare that, short of a finding […]

Scott PowersApril 5, 2017

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You get a former prosecutor, a retired judge and a defense attorney together to talk about legal issues underpinning Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala‘s decision to not pursue death penalty prosecutions, and you might expect lively disagreement. But a brawl? A debate in Orlando Wednesday between former 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jeff Ashton and […]

Tag: death penalty

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

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

Florida prosecutors’ group to weigh in on Rick Scott’s side in Aramis Ayala dispute

House votes down budget amendment calling for report on cost-effectiveness of Florida’s death penalty

Governor’s office affirmed prosecutorial discretion, state attorneys’ independence, in letter last year

Darlene Farah: Prosecutors recognize death penalty’s harm to victims’ families

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

Pam Bondi declines to file writ for Armamis Ayala

Legal debate over Aramis Ayala’s decision turns into hockey game