Daily Loaf

Since its creation in 1992, The Innocence Project has helped exonerate more than 240 people across the U.S., including 17 on death row. The Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) opened its doors in 2003 with a mission to find and free the innocent in Florida prisons. It’s done primarily through DNA testing, although those cases make up only about 10% of the total. Most cases involve things like eyewitness misidentification, false confession and just plain bad lawyering, according to Executive Director Seth Miller, which are a lot harder to prove. “[B]ecause our non-DNA cases represent the largest group of cases in the criminal justice systems that need review, they’re really the most important, and that’s why our office is working with the folks at Stetson to begin to work on those cases so we can expand the reach of the Innocence work in Florida.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) calls it “electrocution without prosecution,” and in the wake of the two most recent Taser-related deaths in Florida, the civil rights group wants the governor to temporarily ban Tasers until a stricter, more uniform policy can be put in place.

The so called “non-lethal” devices, manufactured by Taser International, have killed over 400 U.S. citizens since 2001. According to the website Electronic Village, which diligently tracks the numbers, over 40 percent of the victims are black men. Charles Smith, president of the Manatee Chapter of the SCLC, sees Tasers as the biggest threat to the people of Florida. “You don’t have to break the law for them to use it on you. We cannot allow the local authorities to arbitrarily decide when a person can use a Taser and when they can’t.  This is not a black and white issue; this is a right and wrong issue.”

The October 27 meeting with Governor Crist came after weeks of protest over the Pensacola killing of 17-year-old Victor Steen, who police say was fleeing on his bicycle from a construction site the night of Oct. 3. Officers tried to tase him from inside their patrol car but missed. Steen then lost control of his bike and fell into the path of the vehicle and was dragged 25 feet to his death. After that incident the Pensacola Police Dept. revised their policy to prohibit the shooting of Tasers into or from a moving vehicle.

A week before Steen was killed in Pensacola, 38-year-old Derrick Humbert died within a half hour of being tased in the back for not stopping when ordered to by Bradenton Police Officer Del Shiflett.  Humbert’s only crime was operating a bicycle without a headlight. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said it would not investigate the beating death of a Fort Lauderdale man as a hate crime, prompting outrage from gay rights activists. Craig Cohen was 47 years old and openly gay. He was walking home from a local diner in Oakland Park, just north of Fort Lauderdale last April when he was attacked by a group of men. He was pushed to the ground and repeatedly kicked in the head until his skull was crushed. Cohen spent the next six months in a brain damaged coma and died Oct. 7th never having regained consciousness.

Cohen was not the only person attacked on April 6th. A few minutes later and less than two miles away, 27 year old David Villanova was beaten and robbed by the same men. He survived his attack. He is also openly gay.

Two suspects were arrested in May in connection with the crimes, and a third, just 18 years old was arrested last week, charged with robbery and murder. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office determined that the attacks on Cohen and Villanova were crimes of “opportunity” fueled by a hard night of partying and a desire to “kick some ass.”

But Cohen’s friends say they don’t buy that and neither does Scott Hall, founder and president of Gay American Heroes, a foundation that honors the victims of hate crimes and also seeks to educate the public about a problem that Hall says claims an LGBTQ life every nine days. Hall said he commends Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti’s ongoing support of the gay community, but believes the motive behind Cohen’s murder was hate, not robbery. Because the most typical things thieves would steal were still on Cohen’s body when he arrived at the hospital; wallet, credit cards, cash and a watch, Hall said “the only thing they stole from Craig was his life and the only thing that was actually missing were his car keys. So for them to classify it as robbery is doing an injustice to the community and to us as a county.”

Commander Rick Wierzbicki is with the Broward Sheriff’s Office and is Chief of the Hate Crimes/Anti Bias Task Force. When asked why Cohen’s valuables weren’t stolen if robbery was the motive, Wierzbicki said it wasn’t from the suspects’ lack of trying. He said several eyewitnesses testified that the men tried to get at Cohen’s wallet but “got spooked” by oncoming headlights when the traffic light changed and were forced to leave the scene.

Wierzbicki said his department actually began the investigation as a hate crime. “Sheriff Lamberti spoke out at the opening of the Stonewall Library, and we knew two of the victims were gay. We had composites drawn and within two hours, had them delivered to gay friendly businesses in Oakland Park, Wilton Manners and Fort Lauderdale. But as the investigation went on we knew it was, unfortunately, just an extremely violent attack,” he said.   Wierzbicki said the suspects would have had to have made specific statements or there had to be concrete evidence that the victims were attacked because they were gay and he said there was “absolutely no evidence to that point” and added “it’s a tragic situation but that’s where the facts are.”

Scott Hall says the Sheriff’s Dept. needs to be pressured to reevaluate the case, saying, “if they were to find an African American hanging from the end of a rope anywhere in the U.S. they would consider that a hate crime.” And he added that with the hundreds of different LGBTQ murders he’s researched “this is so evident of the brutality of the crime that it should alone give it precedent to say that it’s a hate crime.”

Now that Cohen has died, Wierzbicki said the charges against 21 yr. old Victor Gonzalez, 25 yr. old Pargu Leandro and 18 yr. old Chad Olah will be the stiffest that can be levied, with or without a hate crime classification, that of 1st degree murder.

If there is a positive side to this tragedy it is the fund that Cohen’s friends have established in his name. It aims to help the other victims in crimes such as this – the pets who are left behind. At the time of the attack Cohen shared his life with a dog named Eddie and 5 indoor cats, who Scott Hall said might have had to be euthanized, were it not for the “Craig Cohen Animal Advocacy Project”.

The CCAAP is part of “The Pet Project” which helps people living with HIV/AIDS keep their pets by providing care and support. Although still a developing initiative, the CCAAP found caring homes for all of Cohen’s cats and Eddie was adopted by a neighbor. To learn more about The Craig Cohen Animal Advocacy Project check out www.petprojectforpets.org. For information about the Gay American Heroes Foundation visit www.gayamericanheroes.info