The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Monday that the a juvenile offender cannot be sentenced to life in prison without parole if he or she didn’t kill anyone. The ruling signals the end of decades of get-tough sentencing where juveniles were judged to be a new baby breed of criminal from a predator generation already beyond the fold of redemption and locked up for life before reaching adulthood.

The Court said that Duval County Circuit Court Judge Lance Day imposed cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, when he sentenced 17-year-old Terrance Graham to life in prison without parole. Graham received the sentence for a violating probation on an armed burglary he committed at 16 years of age.

Five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a juvenile could not be sentenced to death because children should not be judged as harshly as adults. Today’s ruling acknowledges that for juvenile defendants who haven’t committed murder the legal system should offer the possibility of redemption, parole, a second chance, said Graham’s attorney John Gowdy. “Today’s decision is a landmark decision that I believe has significant implications for our criminal justice system and for society, and significant implications in Florida,” said Gowdy.

There are about 129 other people sentenced to life in prison without parole for non-homicidal offenses in the United States, and like Graham most are African Americans. There are 77 such prisoners incarcerated in Florida. The Supreme Court ruling today means all of those cases will need to be reviewed, sentencing reconsidered and at least parole hearings offered. The Supreme Court recognized juveniles can change,” said Gowdy. “I think we should give kids a chance to redeem themselves.”

The crime that Graham and an accomplice committed wasn’t murder, but it was brutal and violent. The pair tried to rob a Bono’s on Philips Highway shortly after closing in 2003. When the robbery didn’t go off as planned, Graham’s accomplice hit the manager in the head with a steel pipe, a blow so severe it opened a gash that took 12 stitches to close. The pair fled. Both youths were found guilty and placed on probation for the crime. That was Graham’s first arrest.

While on probation for the armed robbery, Graham was arrested for armed home evasion. The case never went to trial. Based on the preponderance of evidence of his guilt, Judge Day revoked probation on the Bono’s burglary charge. In sentencing Graham, Day went way beyond the sentence sought by the Department of Corrections (four years) and the prosecution (30 years) and sentenced Graham to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

At a press conference this afternoon, Graham’s mother Mary said that the ruling gave her hope. “This is the most happiest day of my life,” she said. “This has been a long dark tunnel and now I can see a light at the end of it.

“I felt as though my son’s sentencing was unfair, and the Supreme Court felt the same way I did. Right now it is some chance at some hope.”

Graham said she hadn’t spoken to her son since the ruling. Gowdy spoke to Graham, who is now 23 years of age and incarcerated at the Taylor Correctional Institute, at 11 a.m. “He was very gratified and very hopeful,” said Gowdy. “He knows that this isn’t a get out of jail free card. He’s already spent significant time in prison. But this will give him some hope within the system that he can demonstrate that he will change for the better.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that sentencing a Jacksonville teenager to life in prison without the possibility of parole when he didn’t kill anyone amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The 5-4 vote ends a decade where juveniles who committed violent crimes were treated by the courts as beyond redemption and sent to prison for life.

The Court ruled that Duval County Circuit Court Judge Lance Day violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment when he sentenced 17-year-old Terrance Graham to life without parole for armed burglary. Graham was 16 years of age and on probation for armed home invasion when he committed the crime.

The ruling will trigger the re-sentencing and possibly the release of 111 people in the United States sentenced as to life in prison as juveniles. Seventy-seven of those cases are in Florida.
— Susan Eastman

… everything except this excruciating knee pain!
Gloria Gaynor, the disco-era singer of such hits as “I Will Survive,” and, well, a couple others you probably don’t remember, is coming to Jackosnville as part of the sexagenarian’s new role: EUFLEXXA® spokesperson!

According to a press release, Gaynor will perform and sign autographs on Wednesday, May 19 at 11:15 a.m. at Prime Osborn Convention Center, 1000 Water Street, downtown Jacksonville. 

The full release follows:

(more…)

The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County reported earlier today that Jacksonville City Council member Ray Holt’s vote to give the Trail Ridge contract to Waste Management might be explained by a look at his campaign contributions. Holt received $2,000 total from Waste Management and Waste Management’s attorney and lobbyist Paul Harden during the quarter that ended March 31st.

Holt was one of eight city council members who voted during a Committee of the Whole meeting on April 19 to give Waste Management the contract without going out to bid. It’s value is estimated at $459-million for a contract that would last through 2036. The settlement was negotiated to end a lawsuit Waste Management filed after the City Council voted to send the contract out to bid last year. Holt was joined in support of the settlement by Richard Clark, Daniel Davis, Kevin Hyde, Steven Joost, Don Redman, Warren Jones and Art Shad.

Reggie Brown, John Crescimbeni, Johnny Gaffney, Art Graham, Glorious Johnson, Denise Lee, Jack Webb and Clay Yarborough voted against it.<

The City Council will vote on the settlement again Tuesday, April 27, during its regular council meeting which starts at 5 p.m.

While the Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County speculate that Holt’s yes vote might have been braced by campaign contributions from Harden and Waste Management, campaign contributions alone can’t explain the votes of other council members. Harden donated to candidates who voted against the settlement, and he’s not given anything to some candidates who voted for it.

Mayoral candidate Kevin Hyde hasn’t reported any donations from Harden or Waste Management, but he still voted to approve the settlement. Johnny Gaffney voted against the settlement, and he’s received $500 from Harden’s law office and $500 from the Five H, LLP, a real estate company that shares Harden’s law firm’s address. Don Redman hasn’t received any contributions from Harden in his reelection campaign, and he still voted to give Waste Management the Trail Ridge contract.

It’s true that Holt received an extra helping of largess from Harden in the campaign contribution reporting quarter that ended March 31st. Harden gave Holt $500 from his consulting firm Harden Associations; $500 from his law firm; and $500 from the real estate developer Five H, LLP, a company not listed by the Florida Division of Corporations. Additionally, Waste Management gave Holt $500. The maximum donation each quarter is $500.

With the vote on Trail Ridge looming, some council members say they need more time to study a Council Auditor report issued last week and a response from Cindy Laquidara, the lead attorney for the city on Waste Management’s lawsuit. But supporters of the settlement are expected to push it to a vote. More scrutiny of the agreement would likely weaken the case for approval because the more one looks at it, the more it looks like the city would get screwed.

— Susan Eastman

Sheena Matheiken has worn the same dress (actually seven dresses of the same design) every day since May 1, 2009.

Through the Uniform Project, Matheiken has taken upon herself the challenge of creating stylish outre outfits out of scratch.

The Uniform Project

Matheiken is raising money through the Uniform Project to pay for the schooling of Indian children who can’t afford school She’s raised over $74,754 so far, which will pay for 207 children to go to school.

Matheiken’s friend Eliza Starbuck designed a little black dress for her that could be worn backwards, forward, or as a tunic. Sheena then used packaging materials, vintage clothing, homemade accessories and donated items to create a different and often winsome look day after day after day.

— Susan Eastman

The end of the American Dream in an avalanche of foreclosures has been disaster for many, but its been boom times BABY! for anyone in the foreclosure business. And Jacksonville-based Lender Processing Services is in the thick of it.

LPS, a spinoff of Fidelity Information Services Inc., manages mortgage loans for banks, both when the loans are performing and when they go into default. Miss a payment and you begin a churn through a mill where the size of the loan increases dramatically as loan servicers add late fees, the cost of drive by appraisals and sometimes stuff like property insurance for people who already have it or flood insurance for people who don’t need it.

Loan Processing Services is raking in money, more than doubling its earnings just on foreclosures from 2007 to 2008, from $473-million to $1.5-billion. In the first quarter of 2010, LPS reports that revenues grew 45 percent.

But while it’s hauling money in the front door, federal prosecutors are also sniffing around in the stacks. LPS reported in its annual securities filing in February that a subsidiary of the company is under investigation by federal prosecutors. Docx LLC produces documentation for banks, basically to show that they own the loan they are foreclosing on.

LPS is the largest loan servicer in the country so they have to keep track of a lot of loans, loans that have changed hands numerous times as they were packaged into securities, sold as investments, split up, sliced, diced and chopped yet finer again. LPS’s much-touted software program allows the company to continue to service a loan as it changes hands.

But producing the essential paperwork necessary to prove ownership of the loan when it’s time to foreclose has proven problematic for many lenders. That documentation has proved to be plain wrong or just inadequate. An affidavit of lost note is not the same as the actual note.

The federal investigation into Docx LLC gives the impression that the handling of these documents occurred in an culture of strange almost flippant arrogance. In numerous cases, Docx listed the owner of the loan as “Bogus Assignee.” Some foreclosures have actually been filed, including one in Nassau County, where Monsieur Assignee was listed as filing the foreclosure complaint.

LPS has explained that the ironic terminology, ironic considering many foreclosure defense attorneys say proof of loan ownership proffered in court is often bogus, as a designation used as a placeholder in master documents. When the foreclosure was filed, Docx employees must have neglected to add the name of the proper loan holder to the foreclosure.

— Susan Eastman

It began as one very conservative Southern Baptist City Council member questioning the religion of a Muslim appointee to the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission. But the appointment has turned into a referendum on Arab/Israeli peace and the possibility that Duval County Legislative Delegation may never get another bill through the Florida House of Representatives.

The conservative web site redcounty.com reported on April 13 that the appointment of Muslim UNF economics and finance professor Parvez Ahmed had been “stopped cold” by anti-Muslim groups such as Act Up! and the intervention of a “major state political figure.”

Red County was celebrating the 12-5 City Council vote on April 13 to send Ahmed’s nomination back to the Rules Committee.

Folio Weekly confirmed today that the major state political figure was House Majority Leader Rep. Adam Hasner (R-Delray Beach). According to councilmembers, Hasner contacted them before the meeting to discuss Ahmed.

He told District 1 City Councilmember Clay Yarborough — who’d previously quizzed other Human Rights Commission nominees about prayer in public buildings, gay marriage, and other irrelevant things, but then singled out Ahmed for questions on his religious affiliation — that his inquiries into Ahmed’s association with the Council on American-Islamic Relations were on target. “He said there may be some validity to the concerns coming in, in regard to CAIR,” Yarborough tells Folio Weekly. The councilmembers had received numerous emails from members of Jacksonville’s Act Up! chapter opposing Ahmed’s appointment.

After lobbying individual council members, Hasner apparently then let the Duval County Legislative Delegation know that he wanted the appointment voted down. Rep. Lake Ray (R-Jacksonville) called council members on Wednesday, April 21. He said the Duval Delegation would not have the support of House leadership on their legislation initiatives if the City Council approved Ahmed.

Also on Wednesday, City Council President Richard Clark received an email from the Florida regional director of the Anti-Defamation League calling Ahmed a Muslim radical who has “propagated anti-Israeli conspiracy theories” and “defended the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah publicly.”

A Jacksonville citizen commission on tolerance and understanding normally wouldn’t captivate a House Majority Leader, but Hasner, who is Jewish, is something of a celebrated crusader against radical Muslim terrorism.

In Feb. 2009, he tried to prevent Muslims from lobbying state legislators. The Muslim group United Voices for America planned a Florida Muslim Capitol Day to concertedly lobby state legislators, The St. Petersburg Times reported, and Hasner tried to stop the event, saying that United Voices for America had ties to terrorist groups such as Hamas. He also sent emails to dozens of Jewish lobbyists asking if they planned to join an information campaign against the lobbying day.

Just two months later in April 2009, Hasner co-sponsored an event in South Florida that caused the Council on American-Islamic Relations to ask the GOP to demand Hasner resign from office. Ahmed was the chair of CAIR from 2005-2008.

The featured speaker at the “Florida Free Speech” conference told his audience: “Islam is not a religion. Islam is a totalitarian political ideologue. Islam’s heart lies at the Qu’an, and the Qur’an is a book that calls for hatred, that calls for violence, for murder, for terrorism, for war, and submission. The Qur’an calls upon Muslims to kill non-Muslims.”

Asked about CAIR’s demand he resign, Hasner told the St. Petersburg Times, “I am not going to allow the right to free speech to be stifled by a group like CAIR that has legally documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood — a radical organization that is on record as stating they want to destroy America from within through the imposition of Sharia.”

Hasner also contacted Council President Richard Clark before the April 13 council meeting, but Clark said Hasner wasn’t lobbying against the appointment. Hasner just called to ask what the hullabaloo was about because he’d received so many calls.

Clark said he’s amazed that Ahmed’s appointment has become such a major issue. He said that UNF President John Delaney is beside himself with anger over the campaign against Ahmed. Clark points out most of the objections are about CAIR, an objection that he says may “have hair on it.” But he said the people opposing Ahmed don’t know him personally, like many people in Jacksonville do. He pointed out that Ahmed has lived in Jacksonville for many years and is known and respected widely.

When the City Council reconsiders whether to appoint Ahmed to the Human Rights Commission at the City Council meeting on April 27, Clark said will look at Ahmed’s community service in Jacksonville and make his judgement based upon people who know Ahmed and his history here.

— Susan Eastman

If you missed this year’s Wanee Fest at The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, then I have two things to say to you. First, bummer. Second, you’re probably not still hungover like I am.

Started by the Allman Brothers Band in 2004, the festival features some of the best in blues, rock and reggae like the legendary Johnny Winter, Bob Weir and Stephen Stills.
While this year certainly saw a lot of repeats – Gov’t Mule, Derek Trucks and his wife, Susan Tedeschi, The Wailers, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk and JJ Grey and Mofro – it was Wanee newcomers that got the attention of some festival newbies – including myself.

I cohabitate with the world’s number one Widespread Panic fan and I’m completely obsessed with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, so this seemed like a good year to lose my Wanee virginity and get in touch with my inner-hippie. The Black Keys’ Saturday set, as expected, killed it. Auerbach, joined by drummer/producer, Patrick Carney, had a huge sound with songs like “I Got Mine” and “I’ll Be Your Man.”

Some performers weren’t as lucky. Due to the constant spew of volcanic ash in Iceland, buzz act Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings were stranded in an airport in Dusseldorf, Germany and missed their Saturday gig.

But it was the people watching that topped my list of highlights. One skinny twentysomething had his girlfriend write “Please Dose Me” on his back in blue paint. One chick covered her nipples with nothing but “Hello my name is” stickers. A guy dressed head to toe in Gator gear plastered freedomflask.com decals all over everything and everyone and stoners munched on enormous turkey legs. Tattoos, hairy backs, hula-hoops and braless women were the norm. I even saw a kid that couldn’t have been any older than seven with butt-length blonde dreads.

All in all, Wanee was an experience. An experience that resulted in filthy feet, a two-day hangover, a newfound respect for my condo’s plumbing and an unhealthy obsession with Dan Auerbach.

– Kara Pound

Jacksonville will have to pay $37-million more to dump its waste if the City Council accepts a settlement agreement worked out between Waste Management and city attorneys.

The City Council rejected a proposal from the mayor’s office last year to extend Waste Management’s contract to manage the Trail Ridge landfill for another 26-years. The contract was worth about $422-million.

Council members voted instead to put the contract tout to bid. Waste Management responded with a lawsuit that put the city in a bind. Since it will cost an estimated $1-million to defend to defend the lawsuit, it might be better just to try to work something out.

The settlement will end the lawsuit and presumably the city would save money on court fees, but Council Auditor Kirk Sherman says the city will be paying millions more.

Sherman released a report Thursday analyzing the settlement agreement. One of his points was that it would cost less for the city to run its own landfill operation that it would under any Waste Management proposal. He said he couldn’t figure what another company would charge unless the contract was put out to bid.

A Committee of the Whole will discuss whether to accept the on April 19 at 11:30 a.m. The City Council may vote on the whether to accept the settlement or fight Waste Management in Court on April 22nd

— Susan Eastman

When I hear the St. Johns River slapping against a seawall on a hot summer day, I just want to jump in. Here we have this big beautiful river running right through the middle of Jacksonville and it’s too polluted to swim in. Lots of people fish in the river, but a good number of them say they would never eat a fish they caught in it. In the summer of 2005 when that crazy green algae clogged the river, it was just another reminder, if we needed one, that the St. Johns is overloaded with nitrogen and phosphorous pollutants.

The Clean Water Act was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1972. It was supposed to usher in an era where pollutants entering the nations lakes, rivers, streams would be reduced until pollution was pretty much eliminated. But 38 years later, the St. Johns River is still all fouled up.

A couple of years ago, the state Department of Environmental Protection came up with a convoluted formula to set pollutant standards by looking at each body of water individually. It seemed like the general idea was that DEP was going to measure the levels of pollutants in a body of water and if there was still some sort of marine life wriggling around in it, DEP would declare it fine just the way it was.

Earthjustice in Northern Florida filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of the St. Johns Riverkeeper and other environmental organizations charging the federal government had abdicated its responsibility to enact the Clean Water Act. To settle the lawsuit, EPA agreed to set nitrogen and phosphorous limits for Florida waters.

EPA will be in Jacksonville on Thursday, April 15, to take public comment on its plan. As the agency has held public hearings across the state, they’ve heard from industries and manufacturers who oppose stricter pollutant regulation. And DEP is still trying to sell the federal government on the idea that there should be separate standards for different bodies of water. On Thursday, the public will have a chance to tell EPA what protections it wants for our lakes, rivers, streams, bays and coastal marshes.

The EPA hearing will be held at the Clarion Airport Conference Center, 2101 Dixie Clipper Drive, Jacksonville, from 1-5 p.m. and 7-10 p.m. To read more about the standards, go here.

— Susan Cooper Eastman