Todays letter to Editor

[Valigator]

The old adage the squeaky wheel does indeed get the grease. The anti-death penalty opponents are raising the loudest voices these days from almost every state. It is also affecting our courts and our justice system. Let’s see, what is it? Lethal injection is now considered cruel and inhumane? I wonder how many people if given the choice would pick lethal injection to say, being robbed and shot execution style while working at a convenience store. Or would they pick lethal injection compared to being kidnapped, tortured, and raped and their throats slit and left in a field somewhere? Umm, real tough choice don’t you think? Jeb Bush needs to grow the backbone and follow thru on the platform he was elected on. But no, he is folding like a cheap suit on this issue as are other governors who promised speedier executions if elected. In my book he has just turned into another “yes man” for the attorneys whose main goal is to make a name for themselves by throwing justice to the wind.So go ahead and ask yourselves Florida, when another kid is abducted raped and killed, or your grandmother is a victim of another home-invasion and pistol whipped to death, which scenario do you think is more cruel or more inhumane?

[Nulle]

Our State has a few new laws going into effect July 1 that deals with these sex offenders. The address needs to be confermined twice a year and they extended the area where they can live around children.
We will see how strong that gets enforced.

[Valigator]

Hey they printed it in the paper......good ...sick of all the anti's
gettin the voice

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail754may09,0,4536145.story?coll=sfla-news-letters

[McPat]

Let me see...now how did Toby Keith & Willie say it. Oh yeah

"Take all the rope in Texas find a tall oak tree, Round up all of them bad boys hang 'em high in the street...for all the people to see."

McPat

[fabsroman]

What politicians do, is what will get them re-elected. That is, what the voting majority usually wants. Problem is that they take almost a no stance on everything because they don't want to lose a single vote. It really sucks.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Just who has more power..our legislators or the lawyer?
It is the lawyer..they do not make the laws as written but interpret them.
What a politition says to get elected is one thing but I do believe their hands are tied when it comes time to put these into the works. Look what happened to Kennedy. If someone is caught red handed and is without a doubt guilty, why keep the wasted space they create on the planet? Now if the lawyer can put that little question mark in there, the wasted space is still taken up. Maybe not in our lifetime but I see things going back to the hanging tree. Things go in cycles. We still need lawyers. We still need polititions. I just think they got off the path somewhat as to just what the job means along with there are just too darn many of them.. but I feel when say a politition sits in his office, he has to stir things up somewhere so it looks like he did something while in office. Government is just getting way way too big and with so many employees, they ran out of things to govern so now get involved with our personal lives too much...No smoking, motorcycle helmets a must..seatbelts a must..because they can't go the route of make it a must have for driver training for example and need money to run the too big gov roster so collect easy cash by fine for no seatbelts. If a lawyer wanted to make a good name for him/herself, do something about the tax the government collects from cigs..give back to people, afterall it is illegal to smoke in gov places so why should they get the bennys from such a hazzard? Did I get off track here? Maybe but someday people will just have enough of stupid people doing stupid things and the cycle will begin again.
This is in no way intended to offend any job choice one has.
Is just my opinion. Everyone knows my job choice (truck driver that delivered everything we all use everyday, built every road we drive on etc etc)(just try doing without trucks) isn't popular with the authorities...had to deal with judges, police, lawyers that pray on the public all the time while trying to make it a better community and world while feeding my family. And theirs,
Smaller government and keep it out of our personal choices in life.

[fabsroman]

Skeeter,

I only have a couple of minutes to respond to this right now because I have to leave for Court, but it seems as though you are trying to sum up society's woes and put the blame on a profession and government, when in fact, society is to blame.

Last I checked, there are lawyers, judges, and juries involved in the entire legal process. The lawyers didn't get OJ off, the jury let OJ go. I am sure there was enough evidence to convict him, but the jury just couldn't do it.

As far as driver training is concerned, I have two clients going through it right now because their license was revoked for a guilty finding on driving under the influence, plus they are required to take a 6 month alcohol awareness course which consists of 26 hours of classroom time.

An attorney's job is to make sure that the legal process is followed. If an officer screws up and doesn't do things right, which is highly unlikely, it is our job to point that out. There is a process for everything.

As a truck driver, how many accidents did you see? How many people did you see speeding on the road? How many people did you see driving negligently on the road? Ever wonder how many people are killed each year because of this stuff. That definitely isn't the lawyers fault. How about putting some blame on police officers, or the lack thereof. How about putting some blame on taxpayers because we don't want to pay a lot in taxes and therefore law enforcement does not havet he budget they should have to enforce the laws.

Yeah, it is really easy to point the fingers at the attorneys, or the judges, or the doctors, or the truck drivers, or the accountants, etc., but at the end of the day I think it comes down to greedy, honorless people. That is why society is screwed up.

Now, I am off to represent a client pro bono because she is a poor single mother with two children. Probably won't get her off, but I am going to make sure that the officer has to prove his case. Nobody likes attorneys until they need one, and then some even dislike them afterward because they think the attorney did a bad job or took advantage of them. However, if you were charged with something you didn't do, which I have been, and you had no idea how to defend yourself, but hired an attorney that got the job done, I think you would think a little differently about attorneys in general.

Remember, it is the few bad apples in a profession that make the profession look bad. Problem is that most profession, and society as a whole, is getting more and more bad apples because good people see one bad apple and think it is okay to act like that. I cannot tell you how many people want to cheat on their tax returns because their neighbors do, or they want to abuse the system like their neighbors do. Too much worry about keeping up with the Jones.

[fabsroman]

Okay, I am back from Court and my client got off. There was no doubt that she was guilty, but the LEO could not make his case without the witness to the traffic violation (i.e., the guy who's car my client hit when she failed to yield the right of way). The LEO did not have personal knowledge of what happened, so he could not testify against my client. The Judge almost wanted him to go forward anyway, but he declined because he probably knew that I was going to object left and right to the admission of any of his testimony because it was hearsay.

Now, would the officer have gone foward anyway if I wasn't there representing my client? Who knows. One would hope not. Would the Judge have allowed the officer to go forward if I wasn't there, and if so, would the Judge have allowed hearsay evidence to prove my client's guily. Hopefully not.

Now, because I was present and probably ended up getting my client off, everybody will blame me, the attorney, for getting my client off; however, if the witness had shown up like he was supposed to have done, justice would have been served.

How many people nowadays do not stop after they witness an accident because they do not want to get involved? They do not want to miss a day of work to go to Court, or possibly two days. How many people try to avoid jury duty because they do not want to miss a day of work?

Skeeter, the reason this nation, and society for that matter, is the way it is, is because people in general do not do the right thing.

How many construction contractors charge for stuff that doesn't need to be done. How many attorneys file motions and perform discovery in cases where there is no need to perform the work, but they perform it anyway because they are charging on a hourly basis? How many surgeons recommend surgery when it is not really necessary, but because their kids tuition bill just came in the mail? How many truckers break the motor vehicle laws because they get paid by the mile and they want to get as many miles in as they can in the amount of time they are allowed to drive, or they cheat on their driving logs so they can get more miles in, or they take some type of drug to keep themselves awake to drive more miles? How many government employees do almost nothing at work because they can get away with it?

At the end of the day, I don't think it is politicians, attorneys, or any one single profession that is to blame for what we have in this nation. EVERYBODY is to blame. We just like to shift the blame elsewhere because that is another problem with today's society. Nobody wants to take responsibility for what they have done.

I could go on and on about this, but I need to get some work done today.

At the end of the day, everybody should look in the mirror and ask themselves what good deed they did today. I was fortunate today and had the ability to help two people out with no personal monetary gain to myself, so I think I will be able to sleep tonight. Of course, I got personal satisfaction out of helping them, but I can live with that personal gain.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

you touch on lots of good points..don't you think society will have to do some kind of turnaround soon?..Do you think it will just continue to get worse?..you are right about things like Oj also..and I still can't believe that one..sure the glove didn't fit..wet any leather item and see if it fits when it dries..Hy fabs, I wasn't dusting you in any way..I was refering to the first post made here about the govenor not pusing for the death thing when his hands are tied..not only by the people and others in office somewhere..I guess things just arent easy to get done because there is some red tape somewhere..I drove a million miles truckin and not so much as bent a bumper..seen some real stupid things done out there and wish there was a LEO there..but they were always looking for a truck..and the only fines I ever ever ever got were trumped up by LEO's..and that is no lie..and sure there are some off the wall truckers out there that I wish I could take their license from them..and never failed to tell them that either..
good deed for the day..let me see..I do something every day..make a point of that too..at least one thing..today, I made a dr appt for my mother, fixed a hot water heater in a friends camper so his family had hot water, trimmed weeds around a few other campers to help them out..went to my in-laws and replaced copper drain pipe for their bathroom shower and sink all the way to the basement floor...lots of soldering done there..that was just today..I try to stress to others to do at least one good thing every day..and there are those days when no good deed goes unpunished too..lol..I am glad there are people like you fabs to be there when needed..I believe if you weren't there today, the officer would have spoken and his word against client?..would have been different outcome..good deed done..
so I did get a little off pont in my first post but I do believe society has to change and I think it will in the future..if we even have one of those...but you do have to believe and probably should be proud of the fact a lawyer has more power than those lawmakers because the lawyer is the one that interprets the laws in the end....no dusting there either..the governor isn't going to push for death sentence..will just keep quiet and let things pass..that way he is the perfect politition and does nothing..

[fabsroman]

Goes to show how viewpoints can be slanted. Me, my wife, my parents, and my siblings feel as though not enough truckers ever get pulled over here. In fact, I cannot recall ever seeing an 18 wheeler pulled over, and I have seen some of them do some bone head things along with speeding.

As far as lawyers interpreting the law, remember that there are always two sides in any case. Each wanting a different interpretation of the law in their particular case. There was a case once where the highest Court in Maryland, the Court of Appeals, decided that late fees were unconstitutional because they were above and beyond the usury rate of interest. That case sparked class action lawsuit after class action lawsuit, and I was representing a defendant in one of those class action lawsuits. The company owned a bunch of self storage facilities and charged a $25 late fee. The class action lawyers were trying to sue for the return of all late fees within the past three years. As soon as the Court of Appeals came out with that crazy decision, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill allowing businesses to charge late fees, and they tried to make the bill retroactive so that it covered all previous late fees. Well, the class action lawyers were arguing that the retroactivity portion of the bill was unconstitutional. Never got to the end of that one because I left the firm I was working for and the client was the managing partner's client.

So, even though the attorneys argue their interpretation of the law, it is up to the Courts to decide what the legislature meant when it passed the law, and the Courts usually look to legislative history (i.e., the notes from the legislative session), and if the Courts get it wrong and the legislature gets wind of it, the legislature has the ability to redraft the law to make it a little clearer. Last I checked, the legislature is elected by the people.

As far as society is concerned, I think the US is going the way of the Roman empire. We are getting too content with our remote controls, toilet seat warmers, desk jobs, etc. that we won't be able to do anything pretty soon. The barbarians are at the gate and we are watching the gladiators (i.e., sports) fight and we are handing out free bread (i.e., welfare). I think welfare has done a pretty good disservice to this country. That is why illegal immigrants have the ability to come here and find jobs, because Americans would rather be on welfare and medicaid than to work an honest day doing what the illegals do. Personally, I feel as though almost anybody can get a paying job if they want one. It might not necessarily be what they want, or pay what they want, but it is work and it pays. An example is the tech that works with my wife. Her husband has been unemployed for months, soon approaching a year, because the only skill he has is polishing terrazo floors and he cannot get a job doing that and he does not want to do just any type of work. Meanwhile, last year they sold their house because they could not pay the mortgage. They rented a townhouse closer to her work, but the payment was more than their previous mortgage, and they used the equity from the sale of their house to pay the rent. Now, they have finally figured out that they cannot afford the house they are renting and they are moving into something smaller, yet he still does not have a job. He sits home and plays video games all day and eats all day. He buys $50 video games as soon as they come out. One time, he ate all the food in the fridge that was meant for dinner, and he called his wife at work to tell her to buy more food. She broke down crying because they had no money and no credit to afford dinner. Meanwhile, they are trying to have a baby. This is what society is coming to.

I could go on forever. Suffice it to say that I am glad that I have guns and plenty of ammo.

[Valigator]

Oh in case some of you were sitting on the fence...I would have laid money on this...



There will be more murderers to release when LWOP is overturned as cruel and unusual. If LWOP replaces the DP, it will only be a matter of time before it is ruled to be cruel and unusual.

An international judicial body has already made such a ruling. That is one reason some members of the Supreme Court want to use judicial dedcisions from outside the US to "interpret" the Constitution.

The ACLU is working to free murderers sentenced to LWOP in Michigan.

Four appeals court judges in Mississippi have stated that LWOP is cruel and unusual and there has been some legal activity against LWOP in Louisiana

Bottom line: LWOP is a smokescreen for the further glorification of murderers.