Free Republic

MIAMI — A Florida appeals court has overturned the murder conviction for a former FBI agent linked to mobster Whitey Bulger. The 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that former agent John Connolly was improperly convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in the 1982 slaying of a gambling executive. A hit man testified that he killed World Jai-Alai President John Callahan after ex-agent Connolly tipped Bulger and others that the executive would implicate them in another death. In the court's new ruling, a panel of judges determined in a 2-1 vote that Connolly's second-degree...

AFlorida judge this weekend struck down a congressional map approved by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, ruling it diluted minority voting power in the region, making it “unconstitutional.” “This Court will declare the enacted map unconstitutional and enjoin the Secretary of State from using that map in future congressional elections,” according to the ruling issued Saturday by Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh. Marsh also said in the ruling that the state legislature will have to redraw the map again because the plaintiffs have shown this one causes “diminishment of black voters’ ability to elect their candidate of choice in violation of...

On Jan. 4, just days before the start of a makeover of the Florida Supreme Court, justices issued two 4-3 decisions. The cases drew relatively little attention across the state --- one dealt with Orange County elections, the other with attorney fees in a foreclosure battle. But on the losing end of the decisions were Chief Justice Charles Canady and his frequent allies Ricky Polston and Alan Lawson. Four days later, three members of the majority in those cases --- longtime justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince --- left the court because of a mandatory retirement age....

A Sanford judge today ruled that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi does not have to answer defense attorneys' questions under oath in a mammoth Internet casino gambling case pending in Seminole County. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. made that ruling this morning.The case involves more than 50 defendants, accused of violating the state's gambling, racketeering and money laundering laws by operating Internet cafes that prosecutors say served as storefront gambling parlors. Each had ties to the non-profit Allied Veterans of the World, a group that provided charity to military veterans but, according to authorities, donated just two percent of its...

TALLAHASSEE -- Ricky L. Polston, a conservative appellate judge from a small North Florida town, was tapped Wednesday by Gov. Charlie Crist to sit on the state Supreme Court. Polston, 52, will replace retiring Justice Kenneth Bell. Raised on a small family farm in Graceville, Polston received his undergraduate and law degrees from Florida State University law school. He was appointed in 2000 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush to the First District Court of Appeal, which deals with the majority of legislative and executive branch feuds. Polston singled out two cases important to him: A DCA dissent he wrote upholding Bush's...