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U.S. Supreme Court Sends W.D. Childers Case Back To Appeals Court
February 26, 2013
Nearly a decade after former Florida Senate President W.D. Childers was convicted on a bribery charge, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday gave him at least a procedural victory in a challenge stemming from arguments that he didn’t receive a fair trial.
The Supreme Court, in a brief order, sent Childers’ case back to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta for further consideration. The challenge has been pending in the Supreme Court since 2011, and Childers, 79, already has been released from prison after serving nearly three years.
Amy Adelson, an attorney for Childers, said the Supreme Court order offers another chance to get the conviction vacated, which she said would be “great vindication.”
The colorful Childers, who represented Pensacola in the Senate for 30 years, was convicted on bribery and unlawful compensation charges that arose during his later stint on the Escambia County Commission. Childers left the Senate in 2000 because of term limits.
Childers was accused of paying another county commissioner, Willie Junior, for a vote to support buying a soccer complex. Junior reached a plea agreement in which he was required to testify against Childers and the owner of the property involved in the deal, Joe Elliott.
Attorneys for Childers contend that Junior changed his testimony to more-directly implicate Childers, after Elliott received an acquittal. They alleged in court documents that Junior changed his testimony because of concerns about losing the plea deal.
Childers, who was accused of giving Junior a cooking pot filled with money, was convicted in April 2003 and was in prison from 2006 to 2009, according to state corrections records.
Monday’s Supreme Court order relates to long-running arguments about whether Childers’ attorneys were able to fully cross-examine Junior and whether Florida courts properly dealt with the former senator’s claims that his federal constitutional rights had been violated. The claims were based on the Sixth Amendment “confrontation clause,” which focuses on the ability of criminal defendants to cross-examine witnesses.
Childers’ attorneys contended that the state 1st District Court of Appeal, in upholding Childers’ conviction, did not address the federal constitutional issue. In 2011, a majority of the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected those arguments, prompting the challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court’s order does not detail the reasons for sending Childers’ case back to the federal appeals court, but it cites another Sixth Amendment case from California that was decided last week.
By The News Service of Florida
Comments
13 Responses to “U.S. Supreme Court Sends W.D. Childers Case Back To Appeals Court”
I didn’t say WD killed Jake but I do think that when two life long friends get into an argument because Jake was going to testify before a federal grand jury about the corruption in the Southern Company and the kickbacks that WD was receiving from their vendors, something fishy was going on. Especially when Jake was blown up the next day while trying to fly to Atlanta. Again I will tell you that the Atlanta constitution laid out the whole story in a seven page expose’ that the PNJ was afraid to print.
REGARDING:
“I talked to a man who had heard WD and Jake argue at his gas station the day before Jake was blown up.”
To be certain this is proof WD did it, was he the only man Jake ever arged with?
Did he argue with other people? If so were they all also killed?
David contemplating standarts of evidence
I should also add that the PNJ doesn’t have the investigative reporters like the Atlanta Constitution! They shipped the only reporter who would write about the foibles of our local glorius leaders, off to another paper.
serial killers are not worse than politicians?
The Atlanta Constitution had a seven page expose’ about the murder of Jake Horton and the corruption in the Southern Company. The Vincent Alabama Confidential website has several reports about this very thing and I talked to a man who had heard WD and Jake argue at his gas station the day before Jake was blown up. The News Journal wouldn’t report on it because they don’t have the courage of the Atlanta Constitution.
The only thing worst than a politician is a child molester.
An accused citizen has the constitutional right to face his accuser.
The courts did not honor that right.
Factually guilty or innocent, WD deserved a fair trial.
We would all want a fair trial if someone accused us of a crime.
We would all want a government which respected our rights.
We should not want to decide guilt or innocence based on desire to not pay a pension or because we don’t like the accused or because we believe he did other things for which we could not accuse him.
David for justice for all-
If you appeal enough, sooner or later you will get it overturned. The “GOOD OLE BOYS” In this case, if its overturned then he would be entitled to his pension and probably back pay to the day he lost it. I knew in time the crook would get his pension/taxpayer money back. If he made the county commissioners crooked in three years imagine what he did to the State/Washington.
Childers finally got caught of abusing his powers which he had been doing for a long time even back in the seventies… he did a lot of people wrong, the closet of skeletons just wasn’t properly cleaned out, lucky for you wd
The “official” cause of the death of Willie Junior is “suicide”, hence the reason he “could not be cross examined” by WD’s attorney. However, the means, location and form of Mr Juniors death, “suicide”, in my opinion, remains suspicious; he reportedly puts on a suit, brings beer and pills, crawls under an off grade house undetected and there commits suicide???? It is difficult at best to sit up in such a space, much less to be able to lift a beverage and drink it or several….just saying….suicide or assisted death…yet another unique outcome for events that tarnish Escambia County, Fl
Horton was rocking the political boat. Chirdress thought he was the big crook in charge. Horton died, childres went to prison finally but still thinks he is in charge.
Bill,
You are stating as fact something possibly true but not proven unless you can prove it for us.
David wondering
I wonder if the Banty Rooster will ever tell why he and Jake Horton got into a big argument the day before the Southern Mafia blew Jakes plane up, to keep Jake from testifying to the fed’s grand jury in Atlanta.