August 9
FLORIDA:
Federal appeals court rules Florida death row not too hot
It may be very hot on Florida's death row, but it's not hot enough to be
unconstitutional, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.
The ruling apparently puts an end to a class-action lawsuit filed 4 years
ago which claimed temperatures on death row routinely top 100 degrees,
forcing inmates to stand in toilets, drape themselves in wet towels and
sleep naked on concrete floors to bear or beat the heat.
But the Atlanta-based appeals court in a ruling Friday said, "The
Constitution does not mandate comfortable prisons ... Generally speaking,
prison conditions rise to the level of an Eighth Amendment violation only
when they 'involve the wanton and unnecessary infliction of pain.'"
Peter Siegel, an attorney with the Florida Justice Institute in Miami,
which filed the suit on behalf of Florida's 365 male inmates at Union
Correctional Institution in Raiford, said the organization has not decided
whether to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
"We haven't thought about it that much," he said. "I don't think it will
go any further. I don't know what we are going to do or can do."
In effect, Siegel said, the ruling states, "It's hot. So what!"
Siegel said there have been a few heat-related illnesses at Union
Correctional Institution.
"Nobody's died, at least not from a heat stroke," he said.
The appeals court found the heat is not unconstitutional excessive; the
prison is equipped with a ventilation system that manages air circulation
and humidity; and there are conditions at the prison that sometimes give
prisoners a break from the heat.
The case was on appeal from U.S. District Judge Ralph Nimmons, who
interviewed inmates at the prison, and found the heat was not too
excessive.
"We're extremely pleased with the court's ruling that validates the
constitutionally of the conditions on death row," said Sterling Ivey, a
spokesman for the Department of Corrections.
Hannah Floyd, director of the Florida death row Advocacy Group, said in an
e-mail to The Associated Press that the decision is inhumane.
"I know every one is disappointed about the ruling, but I still think it
is only a matter of time before people in this nation have to realize that
prisoners, including the ones on death row, are humans and should be
treated as such," she said.
The Florida Attorney General's Office, which represented the state in the
appeal, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
Another court, representing Mississippi, issued a ruling which determined
that the heat and humidity at its death row were a concern and violated
the cruel and unusual punishment standards. It ordered prison officials
there to provide fans, ice water, and daily showers when the heat index is
90 degrees or above.
Only six of the 52 major prisons in Florida have air conditioning in most
of the inmate housing units. They are Brevard, Broward, Dade, Hillsborough
and Lancaster correctional institutions. In addition, some areas of Union
Correctional Institution have air conditioning.
*********************
State fires 4 probation officers in Fla. case
In Daytona Beach, the state fired a probation officer and 3 supervisors
Monday for allegedly failing to keep custody of an ex-convict who is the
lead figure in the vicious beating and stabbing deaths of 6 people last
week.
Corrections Secretary James Crosby said the employees missed key
opportunities to put Troy Victorino in jail, including a visit to his
probation office within a day of Thursday's slayings.
Victorino, 27, was arrested July 29 on a battery charge, and the next day
police notified probation officers, who were supposed to send a report to
a judge requesting an arrest warrant for a probation violation within 48
hours, Crosby said. That paperwork was not sent until Friday, Crosby said.
Crosby had no answer for why Victorino slipped through the cracks.
"There is no excuse for this inaction," Crosby said.
Police said the killings were the brutal culmination of an argument
between Victorino and 1 of the victims, believed to be Erin Belanger, 22.
She was singled out for a beating so brutal that even dental records were
useless in trying to identify her.
Victorino and 3 teenage defendants have been charged with first-degree
murder and armed burglary. The 4 were denied bond and appointed public
defenders Monday during their 1st court appearance.
Authorities say the source of the dispute was an Xbox video game system
and clothes owned by Victorino. Belanger's grandparents, from Maine, own a
Florida winter home that was supposed to be vacant this summer, but police
said Victorino and other squatters used it in July as a party spot.
Joe Abshire, Belanger's brother-in-law, said Erin had talked to him
recently about heading to the vacant house to go swimming one day and
finding about 6 people living there. The squatters were kicked out, but
they left behind the Xbox and clothes. Belanger took the items back to the
3-bedroom rental home she shared with friends.
Over the next days, deputies were called to the grandparents' house six
times. The victims also reported a tire-slashing at their home and a
threat.
The squatters warned Belanger that "they were going to come back there and
beat her with a baseball bat when she was sleeping," Abshire told The Sun
of Lowell, Mass., for Sunday editions.
All 4 suspects were armed with aluminum bats when Victorino kicked in the
locked front door, according to arrest records. The group, who wore black
clothes and had scarves on their faces, grabbed knives inside and attacked
victims in different rooms of the 3-bedroom house as some of them slept,
authorities said. Victorino, the last to leave the house, took the Xbox,
police said.
The victims, who ranged in age from 18 to 34, were found in bloody beds,
and on bloody floors, and there were crimson spatters on the walls and the
ceiling.
"This is the worst thing that I've ever seen in my career," said Sheriff
Ben Johnson, a 33-year veteran of law enforcement. "The brutal force used
against the victims ... it's indescribable."
Victorino has spent eight of the last 11 years in prison. His 1st arrest
was in an auto theft when he was 15, according to state records. He has
prior convictions for battery, arson, burglary, auto theft and theft.
Some relatives of the victims attended Monday's hearing. "I wanted to see
this. I wanted to see who murdered my daughter," said Kay Shukwit, mother
of 19-year-old Michelle Nathan. "I want to look at him."
(soure: Associated Press)
