Continuing Florida Injustice: Connolly Case To Be Heard Again

(3) John ConnollyI can only scratch my heads at the shenanigans of the Florida Appeals Court.

Here’s a little background. November 6, 2008, Connolly was convicted by a Florida jury and sentenced to 40 years in prison for murder by gun when the gun that murdered the victim was wielded by another (a witness against him) and Connolly was 1500 miles away. The actual murderer got 12 years which wrapped up another 19 murders. Connolly was acquitted of first degree murder and conspiracy to murder.

Connolly  appealed his conviction. May 26, 2014, a written decision is filed by the Appeals Court overturning his conviction. If you are any good at math you’ll see it took five and a half years for that decision to be rendered.

The government appealed that decision. Today, November 13, 2014, six months after overturning his conviction the Florida Appeals Court wants to hear his appeal again. It will do this in February 12, 2015. This will be by all the judges on that court. In the meantime Connolly remains in prison.

I’m not sure how long it will take all those judges to make up their minds but I expect judging from the snail’s pace of justice in Florida it will be another nine months at a minimum. I guess Connolly’s going to have to continue being patient because the judges have no problem going very slowly.

If Connolly conviction is then overturned, it will have been seven years after he first appealed. That’s a pretty long time for a person wrongfully convicted to wait to get his justice. But here’s the problem, a dose of reality. Does the Florida Appeals court really want to be known for having kept an innocent guy in prison for that long?  I think not. The best way to get egg off its face is to not overturn the conviction. So things look dire for Mr. Connolly.

But assuming the Appeals Court does the right thing and tosses out his conviction recognizing that sometimes delays are inherent in the law so people should understand that justice delayed is justice well done. That will not end the saga.

The government can then appeal to the Florida Supreme Court which will further delay the matter. Then I’d guess you may be talking another year or two before the paperwork winds it way up there, the case is scheduled, the arguments heard and a decision is made.

Connolly’s who has been in prison since 2002 can expect if his conviction is reversed to get out of the Florida prison probably by 2018; however, if it is not reversed he’ll be eligible for parole around 2022. He’ll then be 82 years old; but given the animosity the government has toward him he’ll probably never be paroled and will die in prison. In effect, Connolly will have been sentenced to death.

justice weepsThe wonder of it all is that Connolly should not be in a Florida prison at all. It’s quite tragic. Justice weeps.

15 Comments

  1. The irony is supreme.The FBI framed 4 guys to death row on Joe Barbozas phony testimony on the 1965 Teddy Deegan murder.Now,50 years later, one of their own is languishing.Of course, there is a shadow government at levels much higher.Those who dispute it look to me like babes in the woods. Everything is permitted:9-11 inside job, smuggling heroin and coke into the US, murder, blackmail, Fast and Furious, Iran-Contra, collapsing the banking system for profit.The problem is:average people are reluctant to believe things like this because they have consciences:those in power certainly do not.As H. Paul Rico famously said”What do you want, tears?”

  2. That said, enough is now enough in John Connolly’s case. Overkill is an amateur’s game. The professionally responsible thing to do now is to let him up from the ground. For old times’ sake if nothing else sometimes you give tha pack member, however disgraced, a savagely merciful break; but a break nonetheless . Time to release the grip on his throat. Let’s see what happens. It will happen sooner than later.

    • I don’t trust the FEDs. There may indeed be hidden agendas and hidden powers in America. There is no doubt hubris, indifference, abuse of power in the FEDS. 2. John Connolly is innocent and should have been freed from Florida’s Gulag six years ago this Christmas time.

  3. * In a complex and very perilous World this autonomy has advantages …. etc.

  4. Sometimes it is uncomfortable to confront the reality of just who is running THE BIG SHOW. If there is and always has been, as even non-conspiracy types suspect, a ” Shadow Government ” in these United States, then it is more than probable that, for better or worse, the FBI is its. executive arm. It is an Agency answerable ultimately only to itself. In a conplex and very perilous World thus autonomy has distinct advantages as well as drawbacks. Draw back from the chatter and outrage over violated Constitutional principles in John’s case and you see this extra-Constitutional, extra-Judicial case in its real bones : The wolves eating one of their own. The wolves turning on a pack member who violated a core concept of the pack, don’t get caught at the kill. John is and was the FBI’s boy. They have really put the screws to him. This is obvious. This is real Family stuff.

  5. Would Connolly’s lawyers be justified in filing a write of habeus corpus? Or would the FL courts say they can justify his confinement due to the government appealing his case?

    Also, shouldn’t his lawyers be complaining about the lack of due process? Constitutional rights seem to be being violated here by having the courts drag this out for such a long time. It can’t be established procedure to wait 5 years to hear an appeal and then drag it on even longer.

    • Dave, great points,I am sure they are,lets hope somebody will listen and do what’s right

    • My friend and the best lawyer in America, Chester Darling, advised me years ago that Connolly’s lawyers should file a petition for habeas corpus. We passed that recommendation along. Why they aren’t in federal court, with six years stretching into seven or eight or nine before a final decision is beyond my ken.

  6. Once again, Msfreeh muddies the waters with her off topic comments. 2. Justice delayed is justice denied; delays of six plus years are unforgivable; Connolly’s persecution continues and there’s not a shred of legal reasoning to support it. Remember, in the St. Pat’s case, thousands of words were written by “honorable” judges justifying the crushing of the Veterans’ free speech rights. So, too, another state, Florida, blithely crushes John Connolly’s rights and America’s craven press cringes and sleeps. I trust those judges in Florida as much as I trust Fred the Fed Wyshak, the federal judiciary in Boston, and the Massachusetts legal community in general: Nil! Scoundrels! As Young said of himself and Wyshak, “They’ve lost their moral compass.” 2. So, you want to consider a slam dunk case of John Connolly’s innocence and unlawful persecution, prosecution in Florida? Go ahead. Either way you decide, we’ll hold you all in contempt. But while you’re deliberating, why hold John Connolly in prison? He’s convicted of nothing, as of today. As of today, he’s innocent. He’s no flight risk. He’s 74 years old and has a loving wife and three sons in the Boston area. Have you no mercy, you bastards? Set him free while the cobwebs in your heads spin figuring out how to “protect the integrity” of your corrupt judicial system, which is as much in shambles as Massachusetts was during the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade case. 3. How does it feel, citizens of America, knowing you can be unjustly persecuted, prosecuted and imprisoned by your federal governments and state governments, and you have no redress to wait, and twiddle your thumbs, at the mercy of merciless, indifferent, imperious, imperial, unjust “judicial” system. 4. Justice denied by a court is an abomination, an intolerable act. Get the muskets off the wall!

    • William, well said , I agree with you completely . I wish I could write half as good as that . This is the fifth time John is going through the same hearing,
      Rehearing , trial, with all the same material on the table. After 4 1/2 years of
      waiting to be granted a enbanc hearing John was found innocent by a tribunal
      Court ,the chief judge and incoming chief judge voting innocent and judge
      Rottenberg NAY. After 41/2 years of DELIGENTLY going over all the material
      the appellate court found John INNOCENT,DISMISS and DISCHARGE. There is no new material. There are a few other things going on let’s hope something
      good comes of them. You should write a book William

      • O’Callaghan Way–I’ve written 10 books. No one read them. Read my latest CHARACTER ASSASSINS II due out this month from Xlibris. In a couple of weeks you should find it on Xlibris.com. The Subtitle is Who Will Live in Infamy and it lists Jim Bulger (a villatin), Bill Bulger (a good guy), Howie Carr (a villain and chronic character assassin) Allan Dershowitz (a chronic character assassin), H. Paul Rico ( a good guy) John Connolly (a good guy) and Doctor Samuel Mudd from the Civil War era who I concluded was wrongfully convicted of Lincoln’s assassination. 2. Another great book by Paul Walkowski and me is From Trial Court to the United States Supreme Court, Anatomy of a Free Speech Case (Branden 1995), about the St. Patrick’s Day Parade case. 3. When I told my lifelong friend Paul Morrison of Savin Hill that I don’t know why I keep writing, he said tersely, “Because you like to.” That’s true. and thanks for the compliment.

        • Oh yeah, my book Character Assassins II also states my reasons for saying federal prosecutor Fred Wyshak will Live in Infamy. History will record his many abuses of power, his excessive zealousness, his violation of constitutional principles as I have studied them and understand them. So, I hope it’s a good read for many readers. So, Freddie boy, read it and weep! I have a very low opinion of him. In my book, his actions are imprudent, indecorous, contemptible and condemnable. I don’t hate anyone; I detest abuses of power, especially by imperious stuffed shirts, you know the Inspector Javier types from Les Miserables, or the Thomas Cromwell types from a Man for all Seasons, or the “good men” in C. P. Taylor’s play, “Good”.

  7. Matt:
    I could of been a contender, eh?

    da judge got the word from
    the MC whisper stream.

    This just in from the teletype machine in sleepy hollow…

    http://fox13now.com/2014/11/13/did-the-fbi-tamper-with-a-witness-in-okc-bombing-evidence-case/

    Did the FBI tamper with a witness in OKC bombing evidence case?
    POSTED 2:31 PM, NOVEMBER 13, 2014, BY BEN WINSLOW, UPDATED AT 05:50PM, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

    SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge has indicated he wants more investigation into allegations the FBI tampered with a witness in a trial over evidence and the Oklahoma City bombing.

    At the end of a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups stopped short of finding the FBI in contempt of court. Instead, he indicated that he would appoint a federal magistrate judge to oversee further investigation into the claims.

    Judge Waddoups did rule that the FBI failed to file a report on the allegations in a timely manner.

    “The report raises questions and is incomplete and insufficient to conclude if the FBI was involved in witness tampering,” he said over objections from government lawyers.

    The claims of witness tampering spun out of a trial earlier this year over evidence and records connected to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Jesse Trentadue is suing over the death of his brother, Kenneth, whom he claims was mistaken for a bombing co-conspirator and killed while in federal custody during an interrogation.

    Trentadue is seeking records, including videotapes that purport to show convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh pulling a truck in front of the Murrah building and leaving with someone else before the bomb went off. Trentadue has claimed that other person was an FBI operative.

    “There’s no doubt in my mind and it’s proven beyond any doubt that the FBI knew the bombing was going to take place months before it happened,” he told FOX 13 outside of court on Thursday. “They didn’t stop it, and then the question becomes: How did you know and why didn’t you stop it?”

    The FBI has insisted it had no advance knowledge of the bombing.

    As part of his case for the records, Trentadue sought to call John Matthews, whom he claims was an undercover government operative who knew McVeigh. Matthews called the FBI’s Salt Lake City office and told an operator and an agent he did not want to testify.

    Trentadue has accused the FBI of intimidating Matthews into refusing to testify, claiming FBI Special Agent Adam Quirk told him he didn’t have to without a subpoena. A report submitted to the court included transcripts of the conversation, which Justice Department lawyer Kathryn Wyer said found nothing inappropriate took place.

    “The only reason Mr. Quirk talked to Mr. Matthews is he was the duty agent,” Wyer insisted. “He (Matthews) did not intend to testify.”

    The report, which FOX 13 obtained from court records, shows investigators determined no witness tampering took place. However, it did chastise the FBI for not notifying Justice Department about the conversation with Matthews, and Agent Quirk gave a response that “could mistakenly have been construed as legal advice.”

    Read the FBI report here:

  8. * Yep …. jes’ abouts 🙂

  9. Matt: Your Judge Kim Jong Young just gave O’Brien a very merciful 18 months, Tavares 3 months, and the Western Emperor of Probation, William Burke simply a year of probation. Looks like you should have bet the Under. When all the … rhetoric … was said and done it appears Judge William Young’s judicial temperament was just abouts exactly right for this very misbegotten case and the jury verdict of guilty, that it produced.