Tallahassee, FL—Jeffery E. Lewis, General Counsel Office of Criminal Conflict, Melissa Joy Ford, Assistant Conflict Counsel, Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel, Tallahassee, for Appelant; Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Michael McDermott, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appelee; C.J. Roberts, Benton and Lewis, JJ…
When a 30 year veteran State Attorney and his Chief Prosecutor does not recognize whose job it is to lawfully secure convictions of defendants that his/her office prosecutes, then it will be just a matter of time before droves of unlawful convictions will be overturned.
In May 2015, the First District Court of Appeal overturned the murder conviction of Tallahassee resident, Kendrick Herring. In 2011, Kendrick Herring had been arrested and charged with numerous felonies, including murder. In 2013, State Attorney Willie Meggs’ Office got a conviction against Kendrick Herring—who was sentenced to Life in prison. Jeffery E. Lewis, General Counsel Office of Criminal Conflict and Attorney Melissa Ford represented Kendrick Herrings on his appeal. The First District Court of Appeal ruled in part the police should have received a search warrant before tracking Kendrick Herrings cell phone. In September 2016, two months ago, Kendrick Herring was released from prison.
Last Saturday, on November 19, 2016, media sources such as the Tallahassee Democrat and WCTV News, reported that Kendrick Herring was arrested for his role as the getaway driver, in an attempted armed robbery at a Sunoco gas station in Tallahassee, that left a store clerk injured from a gunshot wound inflicted by the would-be robbery, and left the would-be robbery shot dead by the store clerk. While details of how the police connected Kendrick Herring to the robbery as the getaway driver was left out of the media reports, the media did quote State Attorney Willie Meggs and his predecessor, veteran Chief Prosecutor and incoming State Attorney Jack Campbell.
In regards to Kendrick Herring, WCTV News reported Jack Campbell as having said, “We believed him to be dangerous then, and we believe him to be dangerous now.” Sadly, incoming State Attorney Jack Campbell missed how to lawfully show a defendant to be “dangerous” to society the first go around. And Jack Campbell’s statement, “…we believe him to be dangerous now,” is just a matter of underlining the ‘by any means necessary’ in order to score convictions, including breaking the law by violating people’s constitutional rights—innocent or not. Which is seemingly a normal practice that has been exercised in Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit under State Attorney Willie Meggs for more than 30 years.
And now, since the First District Court of Appeal chose to try to clean up State Attorney Willie Meggs and Jack Campbell’s sloppy prosecution of Kendrick Herring, Jack Campbell, has foolishly slammed the First District Court of Appeal, the Conflict Counsel’s Office, and the Attorney General Office for the failures of law enforcements way of obtaining cell phone data and his and State Attorney Willie Meggs’ incompetence for disregarding unlawful acts before convicting Kendrick Herring to Life—risking the possibility that one day Kendrick Herring’s conviction could be overturned.
Both Tallahassee lawyers, Sean Desmond and Pete Williams, who were contenders against Jack Campbell during the past campaign for Florida’s Second Judicial State Attorney, during open forums, both contenders pointed out Chief Prosecutor Jack Campbell and State Attorney Willie Meggs’ failures to properly communicate with law enforcement officials. But again, Jack Campbell would rather use his voice to point out other people’s failures—instead of recognizing his own.
In time…
#FREEDESHONTHOMAS #FSU #FAMU #TCC
Mothers Against Unethical Laws (MAUL) 