DeSantis suspends Tampa prosecutor who vowed not to criminalize abortion

I agree with this :

 

It was supposed to be a triumphant day for Andrew Warren. Then he got taken out.

"A news conference was planned to announce indictments in the rapes and murders of two women in 1983. The ousting of the state attorney blew everything up.

Andrew Warren announces the indictment of two men in the unsolved murders of two women, including Linda Lanson, whose niece, Linda Sheffield, is at left. Gov. Ron DeSantis had removed Warren from office just hours earlier. [ DOUGLAS R. CL

He was set to announce a major break in a high-profile investigation: Based on DNA evidence that had been uncovered by Warren’s office, two men were being indicted in the unsolved cases of two women who had been raped and murdered in 1983.

The story had another layer of intrigue: Warren’s predecessor, Mark Ober, had personally prosecuted an innocent man in one of the murders. That man, Robert Duboise, was wrongfully convicted and served 37 years in prison before Warren’s office exonerated him in 2020. Warren, a reform-minded Democrat, in 2016 had shocked the local legal community when he defeated Ober, a Republican.

The announcement Thursday would not only remind the public that a conviction review unit created by Warren had freed the wrongly imprisoned man; but also cast him as a dogged crime-fighter who had finally brought the two real killers closer to justice.

Then, the bombshell.

Just hours before Warren was scheduled to hold a news conference about the indictments, Gov. Ron DeSantis stunned Tampa legal and political observers by announcing that he was yanking Warren from office for a number of reasons, including that he had pledged not to enforce the state’s 15-week abortion ban and that local law enforcement leaders were complaining that Warren was soft on crime. A coterie of local sheriffs spoke at DeSantis’ news conference, taking shot after shot at Warren."


Link: cont:
It was supposed to be a triumphant day for Andrew Warren. Then he got taken out. (tampabay.com)

 

I agree with this :

 

Why or how do you believe that's going to happen?

 

wow, that sounds fishy, almost like this was a political hit job by DeSantis to take out an elected official....

 

Oh, my.

It's all starting to make sense, DeSantis sense that is.


"The story had another layer of intrigue: Warren’s predecessor, Mark Ober, had personally prosecuted an innocent man in one of the murders. That man, Robert Duboise, was wrongfully convicted and served 37 years in prison before Warren’s office exonerated him in 2020. Warren, a reform-minded Democrat, in 2016 had shocked the local legal community when he defeated Ober, a Republican.".

 

The Senate will reinstate him.

 

and the future of a woman's right to choose

 

seems like a lot more to this story.... wow

 

The premise of that statement being what exactly?

 

No the CURRENT law.

 

It's the "agenda" of the state legislature which represents the people and passes the laws over which the Florida constitution grants him no power of veto.

 

Well, the most glaring examples are probably both impeachments of President Trump, but there were also these incidents:

Defeated Iowa Democrat Asking House To Overturn Election

Judge Deals Big Blow To Democrats Scheme To Kick Republicans Out Of Congress

and while this one isn't about directly throwing them out of office, preventing them from serving on a committee is a step in that direction:

Nancy Pelosi Kicks Ranking Republicans Off Partisan Jan. 6 Commission (thefederalist.com)

 

He’s suspended. Not removed from office. Governor does not have removal authority

 

Why do you believe that?

 

Impeachments are so stupid.

Just watch.

 

Agreed, and to be fair to Democrats on that point, Republicans started that particular stupidity with Clinton.

 

and the future of a woman's right to choose

 

And every time the President actually gets a bump in popularity.

 

Link:

Robert DuBoise is Released After Nearly 37 Years in Prison (innocenceproject.org)

Link:

Robert DuBoise Sues Police, Dr. Richard Souviron (lawandcrime.com)

Snip;

"The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, against former Tampa police Detectives Phillip Saladino and K.E. Burke, former Sgt. R.H. Price, the estate of Det. John Counsman, and forensic dentist Dr. Richard Souviron.

Souviron famously helped authorities convict Ted Bundy for the 1979 murder of Lisa Levy based on the bite mark the notorious serial killer left on the victim’s buttocks. In the decades since, however, forensic experts have largely abandoned using bitemarks to identify suspects.

“The only physical evidence implicating Mr. DuBoise was fabricated ‘bite mark’ evidence that supposedly matched Mr. DuBoise to an injury on the victim’s body. In fact, the victim’s injury was not a human bite mark at all,” wrote Daniel Marshall, an attorney for the Human Rights Defense Center representing DuBoise. “This ‘bitemark’ evidence was knowingly fabricated by Defendant Souviron, a forensic odontologist, in conspiracy with Detectives K.E. Burke and John Counsman and Sergeant R.H. Price.”

 

It is the law today; it could get appealed but not yet. Every law goes through this these days. It's certainly not struck down as you claimed.

 

With a Republican Senate?

 

Yup

 

TAMPA — Ousted Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren is out of a job because of something he said, not something he did.


© Tampa Bay Times/TNSFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren.

Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped a bombshell when he removed Warren from office this week for pledging not to pursue certain criminal cases involving abortion and transgender minors. As the conservative Republican governor and the progressive Democratic prosecutor brace for the inevitable battle to come, the Tampa Bay Times asked legal experts to weigh in.







"DeSantis’ order on Thursday said a governor’s “executive responsibility” allows him to suspend any state officer who is not subject to impeachment for acts that include neglect of duty and incompetence. “Warren has effectively nullified these Florida criminal laws in the 13th Judicial Circuit, thereby eroding the rule of law, encouraging lawlessness, and usurping the exclusive role of the Florida Legislature to define criminal conduct,” his order said.

Some experts focused on a specific aspect of the executive order: Though it said Warren neglected his duty and was incompetent because he had signed letters saying he would not enforce laws prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors or limiting abortion, in fact, no such cases have come before him.

“We’ve had none. None of those cases have been brought to us,” Warren said at a news conference hours after he was escorted from his downtown offices. “We don’t anticipate those cases being brought to us.”

The question, then: Can someone be removed from office for something that has not actually happened?

“There is no case I’m aware of where (Warren) declined to prosecute anybody,” said Clearwater First Amendment attorney Luke Lirot. “So at this point, it’s directly retaliatory for his political speech.”

“It just seems to me to be outrageous that the governor would take these steps to remove a properly elected official simply because they made statements that are inconsistent with the governor’s political viewpoints,” Lirot said."

Snip:
“The important distinction in (the Warren) case is, it’s whether you do it, not whether you say it,” Stephens said. “The only action that’s occurred is speaking.”

Stephens also said that as state attorney, Warren should not have made blanket statements about what he would or would not do.

“You have to make it on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “That’s the nature of why you are there.”

Joseph Cillo, a retired attorney and assistant professor of criminal justice at Saint Leo University, said he believes the governor was well within his rights — and even obligated — to remove the state attorney.

By publicly stating he wouldn’t prosecute certain acts deemed illegal in Florida, Warren created the potential for 14th Amendment issues of denying people equal protection under the law, Cillo said.

“Not prosecuting people for crimes they’ve committed because you don’t want to prosecute them, what is that saying to the general public?” he said. “There’s a crime. If we’re not going to prosecute, there’s no consequence for that wrong action, and it will be repeated.”

The president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Ernie Chang, said in a Friday statement that DeSantis had exceeded his authority. State attorneys have wide discretion in choosing what cases to prosecute, something that happens daily across the state, he said.

“Gov. DeSantis should allow elected prosecutors to do their jobs and should respect the will of voters regarding the state attorneys they elect,” Chang said.

Scott Tozian, a Tampa attorney who has represented judges, prosecutors and lawyers, said the fact that Warren had not had actually decided the kind of cases pointed out by the governor will no doubt be a point of discussion as the matter proceeds.

“I do think it will be a legal issue,” he said.

Warren’s attorney, David Singer of the Shumaker firm in Tampa, said the governor “outlined a number of things in this order that the state attorney might do, that he presumed the state attorney could do. It’s based on letters Andrew has signed and not cases Andrew has seen.”

The main problem, Singer said, is “that none of the acts that the governor is describing have occurred.”

Singer planned to file what’s called a writ of quo warranto motion — Latin for by what warrant or authority — as early as Friday challenging the governor’s power to do what he did.

Said Lirot: “The repercussions of this dispute are going to be far-reaching.”



Link: cont"

Will Gov. DeSantis’ removal of Tampa’s state attorney Andrew Warren stick? (msn.com)

 

What do you have in mind?

Maybe they'll be blow-back from this that will petrify Florida republicans who are up for reelection/election of losing the Independent and moderate Democrat vote?