Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994

To The Editor: Your recent editorial urging legislative repeal of Florida’s jury override in capital cases was right on target. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Florida may, consistent with the Constitution, permit judges to…

SUPPOSE trial judges were free to dispatch a criminal defendant to prison even after a jury of his peers had declared him not guilty. Unthinkable? Of course it is. Yet that's precisely how the death sentence is administered in Florida, where judges…

Calling the appeal “a gross abuse” of the legal system, a federal judge Tuesday refused to postpone the execution of convicted police killer Alvin Bernard Ford, scheduled to die Thursday in the state’s electric chair. Meanwhile, a divided Florida…

Convicted killer Nollie Lee Martin, who was set to die in Florida’s electric chair today, was granted an indefinite stay by federal appeals court in Atlanta Thursday.

The stay was granted by a three-justice panel at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of…

The current debate over execution of those Florida Death Row inmates who are, or who may be, insane raises difficult issues of law and public policy. But the issue, at least in Florida, is not whether the insane should be executed. That matter has…

ATLANTA—Lawyers for convicted murderer Nollie Lee Martin asked a federal appeals court to grant him a new trial, claiming evidence of their client’s damaged brain didn’t come out until after the 1978 trial.

Martin was condemned to death for the…

IN RESPONSE to Calvin Fox’s recent explanation of three reasons why judges, not juries, should impose capital punishment: The question is important, since the Legislature is currently considering repeal of that portion of Florida’s capital-punishment…

Florida's capital sentencing statute provides for a three-step trial procedure in the administration of the death penalty. After a defendant is found guilty of a capital felony, a sentencing hearing is conducted before a jury which renders an…

One day early last July, Gregg Thomas of the Tampa branch of the Holland & Knight law firm, flew to Tallahassee to discuss the death appeal case of Jimmy Lee Smith, who was scheduled for execution in 10 days. Those 10 days wound up being filled…

Almost 11 years to the day after Delray Beach police officer John Kennedy was slain while writing incident reports in his patrol car, an appeals court has upheld Willie Clayton Simpson’s life sentence for the murder.

Fellow officers found Kennedy…

GAINESVILLE – The American Civil Liberties Union is hoping to rekindle the death-penalty debate with the release of a study yesterday claiming that at least 343 innocent people have been convicted of murder and other capital crimes since…

ORLANDO- Juries, not judges, should decide whether convicted killers are sentenced to death, the Florida Bar’s board of governors said in voting its support for a bill that would take away judges’ power to override juries.

“Juries are better than…

Warrenton, VA-As a part of its ongoing Death Penalty Project, NACDL co-sponsored the Annual Capital Punishment Conference held at the Arlie Conference Center in Warrenton, Virginia on July 18-20. The Conference has served for a number of years as the…

The Florida Bar will lobby for removing judges’ power to override juries to impose death penalties and for appointing all trial judges, as part of its 1986 legislative program. The Bar’s Trial Lawyers Section will also support increasing juror…

The Committee on Individual Rights and Responsibilities concentrated its efforts this year on legislative matters. Under the guidance of member Michael Mello, the committee studied and voted to support the “jury override” bill. The proposal would…

"We're a hang 'em high state," attorney Jim Green says. And the Palm Beach County lawyer is not alone in his assessment. Florida has been dubbed the nation's capital punishment capital because of its high number of executions-13, more than any other…

The attorney for two death row inmates just granted last-minute stays of execution says Florida may not be allowed to execute any more prisoners until the U.S. Supreme Court decides on a crucial legal issue now under consideration. Michael Mello, who…

The United States Supreme Court refused to grant a delay in the execution of Aubrey Dennis Adams last week. Adams stands convicted of killing eight year old Trisa Gail Thornley in 1978. It is said that Adams was acquainted with the young girl's…

ATLANTA — The execution of a convict who was under 18 at the time he committed the crime would violate evolving standards of decency established by history and law, an attorney argued before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday.

Mike…

In a first-degree murder case, when a judge and a jury don’t see eye-to-eye on the sentence, as has occurred at least five times in the last seven years in Escambia County, the judge gets the last word.

In four local cases, judges overrode jury…