Trial Post

On October twenty-eighth of two-thousand and eight I was able to attend the trail of a convicted felon. The trail was entitled a Jimmy Rice trail and was to help determine if the convicted felon was to remain in a corrections facility indefinitely. I do not feel comfortable using the accused name but will use all of the remaining facts I gathered while attending this trail. The judge presiding over this case was J Rogers Padgett and the state attorneys assigned to this case were Anthony Duran and Daniel Ampard while the defense attorneys were Robert Mactavish and Maria Pavlidis. This trail had six jurors in attendance and two different doctors spoke during the trail. While I was not able to obtain the name of the first doctor that spoke the second doctor was Dean Cauley of Port Charlotte Florida. The defendant was originally charged with a sexual offense back on August fifteenth in two-thousand and was charged with a second offense on June thirteenth two-thousand and one. In my opinion the most intriguing part of this trail was not the participants involved instead it was the law being enacted.

What I was able to learn about while attending this trail was the law name the Jimmy Ryce Law. Actually its full name is Jimmy Ryce Involuntary Civil Commitment for Sexual Violent Predators’ Treatment and Care Act. While saying all of that is quite a mouthful what it really is saying is that once a sexual predator is done serving his or her time they actually get sent to a separate facility, usually the Florida Civil Commitment Facility, to stay indefinitely or until they are deemed able to function in society without committing another sexual crime. By many peoples standards this might not seem fair seeing that for a lot of the people in these facilities this law was passed after they were already in jail. No matter if they were in jail before this was passed or not they are still being viewed exactly the same. The process starts by a doctor looking at the inmate and then determining if he or she is a candidate to be moved into one of these facilities upon release. That being said this is simply based on that opinion and their behavior with they time at the jail and there of course is no way to prove if someone will or will not commit another criminal act of a sexual nature. From the view of the defense they are stating that the person was tried and given a sentence which they have now served and it is time for their release. During this trail the state must prove three things: first they must prove that a prior offense occurs, secondly they must prove the person has a mental abnormality, and finally they must prove that this person is likely to commit another sexual related crime. If all of these are done then in all likely hood the person will spend the majority of his or her life at this commitment facility. After having a conversation with Robert Mactavish he was not in favor of this law or trail for that matter. He stated on many occasions the inmates are visited by doctors that have reviewed their cases and are trying to make a determination as to whether to send them to the commitment facility or not. Upon the doctors arrival the inmates sometimes are asked questions about if they have different desires or not and many times the answers to these questions make the case for the doctors.

After seeing this particular trial I am not easily swayed in favor of someone that has been tried and proven guilty. That being said I am not sure if changing a law and making someone stay in jail even after their time is up is the right thing to do. But if this decision is being made by a professional and they believe it is going to prevent something that could destroy another persons life then I am all for it. Overall this trail was very interesting and I must say I felt a bit odd watching all of this unfold. It was very different watching the fate of someone’s life be shaped right in front of my eyes. In addition to that since the original crime happened over eight years ago you tend to look at the side of the person they are trying to keep longer than was originally sentenced and forget that this person just eight short years ago made someone’s life very difficult. Honestly it gave me a lot more respect for the judges and staff that do this each and everyday. In addition to those folks I am now starting to see how difficult it would be to be a reporter on this beat. As I write this piece I wonder to myself how many lives did this person effect and why does he or she ever deserve to be on the streets again. It is very hard to take off your judgmental hat just write about the facts and not interject any opinion of your own. This is an experience I will not soon forget and actual might do again sometime on my own just to learn a little bit more.