Court Backs State In Felon’s Rights Fees
April 26, 2018
Siding with Gov. Rick Scott and the other members of the Board of Executive Clemency, a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Wednesday blocked a federal judge’s order that would have required state officials to overhaul Florida’s process of restoring felons’ voting rights by Thursday.
The appellate court ruling was a decisive victory for Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the two other members of the Florida Cabinet, who serve as the clemency board, in a legal battle in which state officials have been on the losing side in a series of rulings by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker.
“The Fourteenth Amendment expressly empowers the states to abridge a convicted felon’s right to vote,” appellate Judge Stanley Marcus wrote in a majority opinion joined by Judge William Pryor. “Binding precedent holds that the governor has broad discretion to grant and deny clemency, even when the applicable regime lacks any standards.”
Walker ruled the state’s vote-restoration process violated First Amendment rights and Fourteenth Amendment equal-protection rights of felons. Last month, he gave Scott and the board until Thursday to revamp what the judge called a “fatally flawed” process and rejected a request by Bondi to put his order on hold.
Scott and the board immediately appealed Walker’s decision and asked the appellate court to put a stay on what the governor’s office branded a “haphazard clemency ruling.”
In its 2-1 decision Wednesday, the three-judge panel not only granted the state’s request to put Walker’s decision on hold but also indicated the judge’s invalidation of the vote-restoration process likely would not stand up.
Echoing arguments made by Bondi’s lawyers, the majority found “there is wisdom in preserving the status quo” until the appellate court issues a ruling in the overall case.
The clemency board “has a substantial interest in avoiding chaos and uncertainty in its election procedures, and likely should not be forced to employ a rushed decision-making process created on an artificial deadline now, just because a more thorough decision-making process could be employed later,” Marcus wrote. “We are reluctant to upset the system now in place — particularly since the district court order creates so truncated a schedule — when there is a good chance the district court’s order may be overturned, and the system would need to be changed again, potentially re-disenfranchising those who have been reenfranchised pursuant to the district court’s injunction.”
Scott has steadfastly defended the state’s process, saying it is founded on a 150-year old system enshrined in the state Constitution.
“We are glad that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed the lower court’s reckless ruling. Judges should interpret the law, not create it. Governor Scott will never stop fighting for victims of crime and their families,” Scott spokesman John Tupps said in a statement Wednesday night.
The majority also found that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed last year by the Fair Elections Legal Network and the law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC on behalf of nine felons, had not shown — or even claimed — that the state’s vote-restoration system is discriminatory.
“All we have is the assertion by the appellees (the plaintiffs) and a statement by the district court that there is a real ‘risk’ of disparate treatment and discrimination, precisely because the Florida regime is standardless,” Marcus wrote, adding that such a risk is “insufficient” under previous case law.
Lawyers representing the felons issued a terse statement following Wednesday’s decision, saying it “preserves the status quo” and “will be briefed and argued to the 11th Circuit on the merits.”
The court also rejected Walker’s finding that the state’s process violated the First Amendment rights of felons because, in part, “no First Amendment challenge to a felon-disenfranchisement scheme has ever been successful.”
But in a dissent, Judge Beverly Martin agreed with Walker that First Amendment rights of speech and association encompass the right to vote.
The board “has ‘unfettered discretion’ to permit an applicant to exercise her right to vote ‘at any time, for any reason,’ “ Martin wrote. “This unbridled discretion is not just concerning when it confronts expressive and associational freedoms traditionally protected by the First Amendment, but also when it threatens the right to vote.”
Martin wrote that, while she disagreed with Walker’s decision that the state could not completely do away its vote-restoration system, she would have left the rest of his injunction in place.
Due to the appellate court ruling, Scott canceled a hastily scheduled Wednesday night meeting of the clemency board, planned in case the Atlanta court did not grant the stay.
The restoration of felons’ rights has long been a controversial legal and political issue in Florida, with critics of the state’s process comparing it to post-Civil War Jim Crow policies designed to keep blacks from casting ballots.
Florida, with about 1.6 million felons, is considered an outlier in a nation where more than three dozen other states automatically restore the right to vote for most felons who have completed their sentences.
After taking office in 2011, Scott and Bondi played key roles in changing the process to effectively make it harder for felons to get their rights restored.
Under the current process, felons must wait five or seven years after their sentences are complete to apply to have rights restored. After applications are filed, the process can take years to complete.
Since the changes went into effect in 2011, Scott — whose support is required for any type of clemency to be granted — and the board have restored the rights of 3,005 of the more than 30,000 convicted felons who’ve applied, according to the Florida Commission on Offender Review. There’s currently a backlog of 10,085 pending applications, according to the commission.
In contrast, more than 155,000 ex-felons had their right to vote automatically restored during the four years of former Gov. Charlie Crist’s tenure, according to court documents.
Siding with the plaintiffs, Walker in a March 27 ruling chastised Scott and other state officials and ordered the clemency board to devise a constitutionally sound program with “specific, neutral criteria that excise the risk — and, of course, the actual practice of — any impermissible discrimination, such as race, gender, religion or viewpoint.”
Walker scalded state officials for threatening to do away with the rights-restoration process all together and gave the clemency board until Thursday to “promulgate specific standards and neutral criteria” to replace the current “nebulous criteria, such as the governor’s comfort level.”
Walker also cautioned that there is a risk that the clemency board “may engage in viewpoint discrimination through seemingly neutral rationales” or a “perceived lack of remorse” that “serve as impermissible” masks for censorship.
“Therefore, the board must promulgate specific standards and neutral criteria to direct its decision-making,” Walker ordered in March. The judge did not specify a particular process but ordered that “Florida’s corrected scheme cannot be byzantine or burdensome.”
Arguing that they needed more time to craft new regulations, the state’s lawyers asked Walker to put his decision on hold, again drawing a rebuke from the judge.
“Rather than comply with the requirements of the United States Constitution, defendants continue to insist they can do whatever they want with hundreds of thousands of Floridians’ voting rights and absolutely zero standards,” Walker wrote in a six-page decision April 4. “They ask this court to stay its prior orders. No.”
The legal tangle involving Scott, the federal judge and the felons in the case comes months before Floridians will decide whether felons should automatically have their voting rights restored.
A political committee known as Floridians for a Fair Democracy collected enough petitions to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would automatically restore voting rights to felons who have served their sentences, completed parole and paid restitution. Murderers and sex offenders would be excluded. The amendment, if approved by 60 percent of voters, could have an impact on about 600,000 Florida felons, according to supporters of the measure.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Legislative Leaders Fold On Gambling Talks
April 26, 2018
After weeks of discussions between two powerful legislators, the possibility of a special session focused on perennially elusive gambling issues came to an end Wednesday.
Incoming Senate President Bill Galvano and incoming House Speaker Jose Oliva conceded they were unable to reach a deal despite self-imposed pressure to come up with a gambling plan before the November elections.
“We’ve moved on. Will revisit next session,” Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, said in a text Wednesday afternoon.
The legislators wanted to head off a proposed constitutional amendment on the general election ballot that, if passed, would give voters control of gambling expansions, decisions now largely controlled by the Legislature.
The legislative leaders had also used a potential loss of revenue from the Seminole Tribe as a rationale for a hurried special session, after lawmakers failed to reach agreement on a gambling deal during the regular session that ended last month.
But a new, yearlong deal announced last week by Gov. Rick Scott and the tribe and fears that a proposed expansion of slot machines could backfire put the kibosh on any gambling legislation, according to Galvano and Senate President Joe Negron.
Under the arrangement between Scott and the Seminoles, the tribe agreed to continue making about $300 million a year in payments through the 2019 legislative session. In exchange for the payments, which are rooted in a 2010 gambling “compact,” the tribe would continue to have exclusive rights to offer games such as blackjack at its casinos and would continue to be the state’s only slot-machine operator outside of Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
The Seminoles would keep up the payments “provided the state does not enact legislation to expand gaming subject to exclusivity under the compact during the forbearance period.”
Whether the talk of a special session sparked a renewed agreement between the Seminoles — who are major contributors to the political committee behind the proposed constitutional amendment — and Scott, or the other way around, is unclear.
But the resulting deal — and the guarantee that the incoming leaders could rely on another $300 million from the tribe, and possibly more, when they craft next year’s budget — withered the prospect of a special session.
“That reduced the sense of urgency on behalf of Speaker-designate Oliva and President-designate Galvano. I could sense that, when it happened,” Negron, R-Stuart, told The News Service of Florida on Wednesday.
The deal being considered by Galvano and Oliva would have jeopardized the income from the tribe by allowing slots in up to six of the eight counties — Brevard, Duval, Gadsden, Hamilton, Lee, Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Washington — where voters have approved the lucrative machines at local pari-mutuels, an element the Senate has supported. To compete for the six new slot machine licenses, pari-mutuel operators would have had to relinquish active permits, a “contraction” of gambling pushed by House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes.
The gambling operators also would have had to make some sort of guarantee for a minimum amount of revenue to the state to offset potential losses from the tribe.
But supporters of the “Voters in Charge” proposal, which will appear on the November ballot as Amendment 3, are asserting that the measure, if passed, could apply retroactively, meaning money from both the Seminoles and the pari-mutuels would be off the table, at least temporarily.
“That was exactly the issue” that put an end to the talks, said Negron, who will be replaced by Galvano after the November elections.
“There also was uncertainty that some attorneys believe that the constitutional amendment could be interpreted retroactively so that the expansion to the slot machine counties, which I support because the voters voted, could be stricken down and then the contraction, that’s the House priority, could be sustained. Obviously, that’s not an equitable situation,” he said. “So that issue is unclear and uncertain.”
The incoming leaders were also concerned that, once a special session on gambling was called, legislators would demand that the session be expanded to include other issues, such as funding for public schools and the controversial “school guardians” program that allows certain specially trained teachers, certified by sheriff’s offices, to bring guns to schools.
Galvano, R-Bradenton, told the News Service that he and Oliva had discussed the broad outlines of a potential deal, but that ultimately, the “revenue uncertainty” and other factors put an end to the talks.
“The potential impacts of having a retroactive application of the constitutional amendment, and the litigation and delays … as well as the managing the call” of the session ultimately caused the leaders to abandon the issue, he said, at least for now.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
FHP: Hit And Run Driver Arrested After Hitting Motorcycle
April 26, 2018
An alleged hit and run driver has been arrest in connection with an accident that seriously injured a motorcyclist.
The Florida Highway Patrol said James Taylor Tice was arrested on warrants stemming from his involvement in a hit and run crash. The FHP said Tice was traveling north on Pine Forst Road when failed to stop for a red light at Nine Mile Road and collided with the rear of a motorcycle.
The FHP said Tice then fled the scene, but a second motorcycle rider was able to follow his vehicle and obtain Tice’s tag number.
“Tice was identified through an extensive investigation that resulted in a warrant being issued for his arrest based on his involvement regarding the hit and run crash,” FHP Lt. Eddie Elmore said.
Tice was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with a serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, failing to render aid and driving with a suspended or revoked license.
Making Learning Fun: Welcome To Fleming’s Jurassic World At Lipscomb Elementary
April 26, 2018
Students in Rhonda Fleming’s classroom at Lipscomb Elementary School went wild over her decorations. Fleming went all out in decorating the classroom as “Fleming’s Jurassic World”, including desks in a jeep, a waterfall and a dinosaur, in an effort to make learning more fun. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Wahoos Beat The Barons
April 26, 2018
Pensacola recorded 14 hits in Wednesday’s series finale, and they needed every one of them. The Wahoos fended off a late surge from the Barons to hold on for a 9-8 win.
Birmingham struck early for the second consecutive game with a three-run fourth inning. The first five Barons reached in order, and three came to score to give Birmingham a 4-0 lead.
The Wahoos were quick to respond in the bottom of the fourth with a rally of their own. After a walk and a single, Chadwick Tromp doubled home Aristides Aquino and Luis Gonzalez to cut the deficit to 4-3. But if the fourth inning was just the appetizer, then the fifth inning’s rally was the main course.
Gavin LaValley led off the fifth with his second home run of the season, which tied the game at four. Pensacola’s next five batters all reached with hits, which chased Barons starter Ian Clarkin (L, 1-1) from the game. Nick Longhi’s two-run single capped a fourth inning that resulted in seven hits and six runs, giving the Wahoos a 9-4 lead. By the end of the inning, every Wahoos starter had recorded at least one hit for the game.
Despite the lead, Wyatt Strahan (W, 3-1) wasn’t at his sharpest. He pitched five plus innings and allowed a career-high 10 hits but limited the damage to only six runs (five earned). Pensacola manager Jody Davis used four different relievers to pitch the final four innings.
In the ninth inning with the Wahoos leading 9-8, Davis called on Alex Powers to finish the game. The 26-year old didn’t disappoint as he retired the side in order to seal the win.
Pensacola will head east on I-10 tomorrow to take on the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp in a rematch of last season’s Southern League South Division Championship series. Pensacola swept all three games last season in the playoffs to capture the franchise’s first Southern League title. Defending Southern League Pitcher of the Week, Daniel Wright (2-1, 4.29) will open the series for the Wahoos.
Century Applies For Grant To Finish Updates To Land Development Code
April 25, 2018
The Town of Century is applying for a state grant to complete an updated to their Land Development Code (LDC).
In 2016, the town received a $25,000 Community Planning Technical Assistance Grant from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity that was used to updated five chapters of the LDC.
If the town receives an additional grant, it will be used to update portions of the LDC that were adopted in 1991, prepare a zoning map and offset the cost of publishing the changes.
Monday night, the town voted to allow the Nickles Consulting group to apply for the grant on their behalf. Public meetings will be held prior to the approval of LDC changes.
Pictured: Three Century staffers — Assistant Clerk Kristina Wood, Peggy Fowler of Peggy Fowler and Associates and consultant Debbie Nickles — and no members of the public at a 2017 Land Development Code workshop in Century. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Showers For Thursday
April 25, 2018
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers after 1am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 59. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming south after midnight.
Thursday: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 1pm. Cloudy, then gradual clearing during the afternoon, with a high near 75. South wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. Northwest wind around 5 mph.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 78. Northwest wind around 5 mph.
Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 53. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming northeast after midnight.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 80. North wind around 5 mph.
Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 54. Northeast wind around 5 mph.
Monday: Sunny, with a high near 81.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61.
Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 79.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 62.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80.
District Softball: Tate Tops Washington; Wins For Northview And Jay
April 25, 2018
Tate, Northview and Jay recorded wins Tuesday to advance to their respective district softball championship games Thursday.
Northview 2, Freeport 0
Jay 6, Chipley 3
Jay and Northview will meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. in the District 3-1A softball championship game after both picked up wins Tuesday.
Tuesday, Aubree Love hit a home run as the Northview Lady Chiefs beat Freeport 2-0. And the Jay Lady Royals beat Chipley 6-3.
For Northview, Tori Herrington recorded nine strikeouts. At the plate, Ashley Ragsdale went 1-3, Valen Shelley was 1-3, Loves was 1-2 with her home run and a RBI and Lydia Smith was 2-3.
Jay will host Northview Thursday at 7:00 in the district championship game. Both teams were 3-2 in district play during the regular season.
Tate 10, Washington 0
The Tate Lady Aggies beat Washington 10-0 Tuesday to advance to the District 1-7A championship game on Thursday.
Hannah Brown tossed a shutout for Tate on the mound, allowing two hits and striking out eight.
Shelby Ullrich homered for the Lady Aggies.
For Tate: Ullrich 1-2, HR, RBI, 2R; Brown 3-4, RBI; Belle Wolfenden 1-3; Madisen Nelson 1-1, R; Sydni Solliday 2-2, 2RBI, R; Ryleigh Cawby 1-1, RBI, R: Kayliegh Cawthorn RBI; Ashley Lunquist R; Shelby McLean 1-3, RBI, R; Deazia Nickerson 1-2; Amber DeCoux 2-3, R; Katie Snyder 1-1, RBI; Hanna Halfacre R; Courtney Adams R.
Pace beat Escambia 2-1 Tuesday. That sets up a Pace at Tate district championship game Thursday at 7:00.
Photos by Diann Tagert for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Tate Tops West Florida
April 25, 2018
The Tate Aggies scored four runs in the sixth inning on their way to a 7-1 win over West Florida Tuesday night.
Raymond Lafleur pitched the win for Tate in two innings, allowing one run, no hits and striking out four. Jace Dunsford and Reid Halfacre closed out the game in relief. Halfacre recorded the last three outs to earn the save for the Aggies.
Chase Stanhope took the loss for West Florida. He lasted four innings, allowing six hits and three runs.
For Tate: Blake Anderson 1-1, RBI; Ethan Bloodsworth R; Ryan Greene RBI; Reid Halfacre 1-4; Trent Jeffcoat 2-3, 2B, 2RBI, R; Kaden Kings 2-3; Raymond Lafleur R; Mason Land R; Hunter McLean 3-3, 2B, R; Darrien McDowell 1-3, R; Jesse Sherrill 2-3, 2RBI, R.
Rigby Recognized For 30 Years With Escambia County
April 25, 2018
Escambia County Fleet Maintenance Supervisor Dennis Rigby of Walnut Hill was recently recognized by the Escambia County Commission for 30 years of dedicated service.
“He’s a very unique individual. He’s extremely intelligent and has an iron man work ethic,” Pat Johnson, Waste Service Department director, said.
“It’s been an extremely interesting 30 years,” Rigby said.
Rigby was presented with a certificate and pin.
Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.