Talk Elections

Unexpected ff move, thank you governor DeSantis.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/2550190002

Forgive me for being cynical, but I will care more when conservative Republicans pardon or commute the sentences of over sentenced individuals currently in their system rather than trying to show what a racially Progressive person they are for taking the no-brain step of pardoning the most grotesque and obvious travesties of Justice committed several decades earlier.

Reminder that the Central Park 5 is the modern day equivalent of cases like this and the Republican national leader to this day continues to profess they are guilty

Florida's Executive Clemency process is limited, and must be done by a vote of the Florida Cabinet. 

Florida imposed a point system in sentencing in 1983 to deal with oversentencing and sentencing disparities, but the Legislature has undid this in various steps since then.  Florida is also one of the most over-criminalized states with civil matters becoming misdemeanors and misdemeanors becoming felonies. 

Man if only the Republicans had controlled the state for the past 20 years so they could do something to change this!

I see he is following the Trump playbook of pardoning dead black people from a century ago to avoid criticism for their covert racist actions in the present day.

Between this, firing Israel, and his Everglades stuff, DeSantis is off to a very good start.

It's still better late than never.

Florida's Governor does not have Pardon Power; that power is in the hands of the Florida Cabinet, which consists of the Governor, the Lt. Governor, the Secy. of Agriculture, the Attorney General, and the Chief Financial Officer.  One Governor and Four Wannebe Governors.  In the case of the Groveland Four and the case of Pitts and Lee (a similar case), the fraudulent victims and their families were connected with local pols, and legislators (including Democratic legislators over the years) were obstacles to this. 

I advocate absolute, permanent, irrevocable, and unreviewable pardon power for FL's governor and for the President.  It's the one power that I want concentrated in the hands of one man.

DeSantis suspended Israel.  As far as I am concerned, he abused his power; this was done for purely political reasons.  The power to remove an elected official is something reserved for corruption or gross malfeasance.  Israel is a Democrat, and this is naked politics.  Let the voters remove Israel.

This.

I also believe that this pardon, a somewhat meaningless gesture at this point, is being done to obscure the fact that DeSantis and the GOP are planning to come up with plans to obstruct the implementation of former felons registering to vote under the Amendment approved last November.  DeSantis proposes that the Legislature needs to approve an implementation plan for this, which involves reviewing if all the felons aren't murderers, and interpreting "completion of all sentences" to include payment of all court costs and restitution (which is often reduced to a civil judgment when defendants can't pay).  This was NOT the intent of the Amendment, but this "interpretation" of "completion of sentences" could be tied up in court long enough to rig the 2020 election in Florida.

My own view is that if you're walking around free, and you are a citizen, you should have the right to vote, regardless of whether you're the worst sort of HP or a total ignoramus.

I still wince when I see the words "Governor DeSantis" but this seems like a surprisingly FF move to me from a usually HP politician

To be fair, Reuben Askew, Bob Graham, and Lawton Chiles all had the opportunity to right this wrong, as did Jeb "Illegal Immigration Is An Act Of Love" Bush and Charlie Crist (who was actually the most progressive Governor on the issue of restoration of offender civil rights, even as a Republican). 

True dat. Fair is fair