Without Jacksonville attorney Johns Mills, thousands of detained Cuban immigrants might never have found freedom. Like it or not, Mills’ pro bono work changed immigration law – and it all started with Daniel Benitez.
In the early 80s, Benitez fled Cuba with thousands of other illegal immigrants, seeking the shelter of America’s borders.
Then he went to prison.
Benitez served his full sentence for armed robbery, burglary and battery. But when his time was up in 2001, Benitez couldn’t go home. Cuba wouldn’t take him back, and a 1996 law that tightened restrictions on criminal aliens allowed the attorney general to detain him indefinitely.
Benitez lost his case in the 11th Circuit Court, which maintained that courts shouldn’t interfere with other political branches’ ability to detain dangerous illegal immigrants.
The 11th Circuit appointed Mills — who specializes in appellate cases out of his Riverside law firm of Mills & Carlin — to appeal on Benitez’s behalf. The Supreme Court took the case in 2004. After 500 hours of pro bono work on the case, Mills won. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s decision 7-2.
“I got to tell him (Benitez) on the phone that he was free,” said Mills. “You really feel like you’re practicing law at the highest level. You’re effecting change. Win or lose, you’re fighting for somebody.”
An estimated 2,200 people with cases similar to Benitez’s have been freed in the year-and-a-half since the Supreme Court ruling. Mills’ extensive hours of pro bono work on the Benitez case and others earned him the 2006 Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award and the 2005 Pro Bono Award from the Appellate Practice Section of the Florida Bar.
Along with firm partners Tracy Carlin and Rebecca Creed, Mills takes on pro bono appeals at the request of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and by direct contact with clients.
“There’s no such thing as free time,” said Mills, adding that he has difficulty finding the time for pro bono work, but squeezes it in because the work matters to individual people. “We turn down a lot of cases to do pro bono work.”
Mills & Carlin is the only firm in north Florida that does appeals exclusively, which provides Mills with a variety of benefits. Most of his work is writing, which he enjoys (“Everybody kind of calls us the law geeks,” said Mills). He doesn’t have to see clients very often, so he wears jeans and brings his dog, Woody, to work.
“We don’t compete with the trial lawyers,” said Mills, explaining that limiting their work to appeals gives them a unique business angle. “They know we’re not going to take their client.”
Mills said appellate law is more intellectual and academic, as well. Appeals let him work less with what the law is and focus more on “what the law ought to be.”
Michael Figgins, executive director of JALA, said he calls Mills when a case has gone to trial and gotten unsatisfactory results.
“What he does is pretty special,” said Figgins. “We call him in dire straights and he comes through.”
Mills said he often stays in touch with former pro bono clients. They call to thank him and let him know how they’re doing.
In Benitez’s case, however, the story had an abrupt ending. After he was freed, Mills said Benitez was essentially on parole, working as an electrician’s apprentice and adjusting to life outside of prison. He died suddenly from a massive heart attack, just six months after his release. He was in his late 40s.
“It was sad ... He was doing really well,” said Mills. “At least he had those six months.”