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Re: Ashcroft tracking which judges impose lighter sentences, Aug. 8.
This story said that Attorney General John Ashcroft has directed U.S. attorneys nationwide to promptly report to Justice Department headquarters when a sentence is a downward departure from federal guidelines. This is an astonishing development worthy of front-page coverage.
Ashcroft maintains this measure is to ensure that laws concerning criminal sentencing are faithfully, fairly and consistently enforced. If this is true, shouldn't he be equally concerned about sentences that exceed federal guidelines? Ryan King, research associate with the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit group seeking alternatives to prison, has it right when he says that this directive is telling judges who want to depart from the guidelines "that you will be put on a list and you will be watched."
This appears to be mostly a witch hunt by Ashcroft to identify and intimidate those judges he feels are guilty of judicial heresy. If Ashcroft is really all that interested in ridding the court system of heretics, perhaps he should convene a good old-fashioned "inquisition" in pursuit of this matter.
Re: Ashcroft tracking which judges impose lighter sentences.
Essentially, Attorney General John Ashcroft is saying: "Today U.S. justice is being ordered to be more concerned about the handcuffs being too loose."
And that they may be too tight is no longer an equally important part of the equation.
I see a flaw in this quality of justice.
Re: "A blacklist of judges," editorial, Aug. 12.
Attorney General John Ashcroft is all about protecting this country and forcing these federal judges to be accountable. If there are guidelines for sentencing, then the judges are expected to follow them. If they cannot enforce the law, then leave the bench! We need more prisons and more punishment to prove that crime does not pay in America.
I would hope our local officials would follow John Ashcroft's lead in handing down more severe punishment for local crimes. Let me give you an example. A few months ago Stephanie Smith, who placed her newborn infant daughter in a garbage can to die, was offered a plea bargain to do community service with no jail time. State Attorney Bernie McCabe said he felt "it was the right thing to do" after several of Smith's friends and clergy begged for leniency. What was this all about? This woman was 24 years old and attempted to kill her baby, but walked because of leniency.
John Ashcroft is absolutely right in scrutinizing judges and making sure they follow guidelines for punishment. And yes, I look forward to another four years of George W. Bush and John Ashcroft.
Re: A black eye on the judiciary, editorial, Aug. 6, and Judge out of court for 10 weeks, calendar shows, Aug. 2.
As an attorney who practices family law in Pinellas County and has many cases before Judge Charles Cope, I am qualified to comment upon the allegations contained in the St. Petersburg Times. Cases in Family Division 22 run smoothly and begin on time. It is always possible to schedule hearings within a reasonable time. Cases in Division 22 do not take longer to schedule or resolve than in any of the other family law divisions.
When computing the amount of time required for a hearing in Division 22, I can schedule a short period of time because I know from experience that Judge Cope will have reviewed the file and read all the relevant pleadings. Hearings before Judge Cope often resemble appellate oral arguments because he has digested the issues, is familiar with the case law and gets directly to the key points. Obviously this level of preparation prior to hearings is time-consuming and would not directly be observable through an inspection of the court's calendar.
Division 22 is efficient. The Division 22 judicial assistant is courteous, accessible and always returns calls promptly. On any given week, it is always possible to get on the uniform motion calendar. I believe many of my colleagues handling family law cases share my observations.
The test of a good judge is whether the "losing party" respects the judge, the court and the judicial process. Litigants in Division 22 feel they have been treated honestly, fairly and with concern for their individual problems.
Re: Choice makes no exceptions for orphans, Aug. 11.
Sisters, 15 and 13, lose their parents to violent death and have to move out of their home area to live with their grandmother, leaving their friends behind. They have one consolation and that is their grandmother has evidently played an active role in their lives and they have friends in her neighborhood.
However, Pinellas County has activated a choice program this year, and if students weren't registered in the system last year, they have no "choice" but to be farmed out to whatever school has room for them.
Pinellas schools superintendent Howard Hinesley says that honoring the waiting list is important, citing a case where two students were swapped because of failure of the school system to provide promised transportation. "The profanity I took was incredible," said Hinesley.
Guess what? That's what Hinesley gets paid for! Making the tough decisions, hearing individual cases and making a judgment that is fair and just to that particular circumstance.
These sisters need each other and the support system they already have, not to have to make a new one three months after their parents' death. Teenage years are tough enough.
Hinesley should earn that salary he demanded from this county and do what is right for these girls. Keep them in their neighborhood school with the support system they have in place.
Re: It's not just the kids with first-day jitters, by Thomas C. Tobin, Aug. 3.
As the chairman of the board of directors of the Pinellas Realtor Organization, which consists of more than 6,000 Realtors in offices throughout Pinellas County, I strongly object to Thomas Tobin's use of the term "racist Realtors" in the story. This characterization of an entire organization and profession as "racist" is inaccurate and troubling, especially as it is based solely on an analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Each members of the Pinellas Realtor Organization is also a member of both the Florida Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors and is required to strictly follow the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics. Article 10 of the Code of Ethics states, in part, "Realtors shall not be parties to any plan or agreement to discriminate against a person or persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin."
This Code of Ethics that each Realtor must adhere to at all times is just one of the differences between Realtors and an individual who has a license to sell real estate in Florida. Ethics in general and nondiscrimination in particular are points that are stressed in the regular orientation sessions. All Realtors must participate in mandatory ethics training at least once every four years.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, instances of discrimination in sales to minorities decreased by more than 40 percent over the last decade. This decrease has come from a combination of better education, enhanced ethics training and stricter enforcement of the law - all of which have been supported by Realtors at the local, state and national level.
Tobin's blanket generalization of Realtors being "racist" is a disservice to Realtors in Pinellas County.
Re: DOE's silence, editorial, Aug. 7.
As a home-educated student for 12 years, recently graduated, I take offense at your blatant opposition to home schooling and anything related. Though home-schooled students continually perform above state and national averages, and home-schooling's success is obvious, home-school families are without any federal, state or local aid.
Simply because a school does not operate a conventional, physical school building with classrooms and teachers it should not be excluded from state aid, if eligible. Home-school parents pay taxes for public schools they don't utilize and often receive nothing to aid their children's education. If private schools can receive state aid, so should home-school organizations - some of which are considered by the state to be private schools.
These schools do more than anyone to strengthen accountability - they keep home-school families accountable to state standards, ensure that home-schooled students are tested regularly, and maintain records of student achievement and progress. If anyone were concerned about home-schooled students, he would wish to support home-school organizations such as Castle Oak Academy and others like it simply because of their stringent standards and accountability to an individual's educational success.
Re: DOE's silence.
Yipes. Your editorial board takes one sentence from a longer e-mail exchange between me and someone at the state Department of Education, and even I come away thinking that I must be a seditionist! To read the unfairly excerpted sentence anyone would think that I was wrongfully delaying or withholding information from public officials. But then if you read the rest of the e-mail exchange (including the very next sentence) you learn that I was delaying because the request came right when we had our hands full issuing our first round of 7,000 donated scholarships, that I had already provided the requested information directly to the Miami-Dade County Public Schools - and that I provided the updated information to the DOE within days of the e-mail request!
Now who is engaged in the alleged conspiracy of silence? Education Commissioner Jim Horne and folks like me who support this program of scholarships for low-income children, or the St. Petersburg Times, which is so intent on doing it harm? Now whose motives and integrity should we question?
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