Probably best known for his passionate defense of the American way when sentencing “shoe bomber” Richard Reid to prison, U.S. Judge William G. Young will deliver the keynote address during the Judicial Luncheon June 28 at this year’s Florida Bar Annual Convention in Orlando.
Also on hand, at the invitation of Bar President Hank Coxe, will be North Carolina lawyers Joseph Cheshire, Wade M. Smith, and James P. Cooney III, who defended members of the Duke lacrosse team falsely accused of rape. Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Lewis will give the annual state of the judiciary address at the Judicial Luncheon.
Coxe said Young is one of the most dynamic speakers he has ever heard on the subjects of judicial independence and the vanishing jury trial.
“Here, in this society, the very winds carry freedom. They carry it everywhere from sea to shining sea,” Young, who sits on the U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, told Reid in 2003 after sentencing him to life in prison for trying to blow up a jet flying from Paris to Miami two years earlier. “It is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom; so that everyone can see, truly see that justice is administered fairly, individually, and discretely.”
Probably not as widely known are Young’s efforts to try suspected terrorists in the civilian court system and not before military tribunals.
“In this case, the President and the President’s attorneys have sought a formal indictment and jury trial of Reid,” Young wrote in a memorandum dealing with the Reid case. “It is readily apparent that they have done so due to the fact that the American jury is direct democracy in action, the New England town meeting writ large. By subjecting their case to the requirements of formal proof beyond a reasonable doubt in a public courtroom before a jury of ordinary Americans, the government invigorates and strengthens our democracy generally as can no other form of trial and demonstrates to the world at large its absolute faith in the strength and independence of our institutions. In fine, here the President is taking his case directly to the people.”
North Carolina lawyers Cheshire, Smith, and Cooney will also attend the Judicial Luncheon as guests of Coxe and speak later that night about their representation of three Duke students falsely accused of raping a stripper at an off-campus party.
Ultimately, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced that all charges had been dropped, characterizing the case as a “tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations.”
“This case shows the enormous consequences of overreaching by a prosecutor,” said Cooper.
The convention is set for June 27-30 at the Orlando World Center Marriott. For more convention information visit www.floridabar.org.
— Courtesy of The Florida Bar News