Corey Smith’s loss of life sentence has been nixed as a decide was uncovered for her brutal textual content messages.
Nov. 11 2024, Printed 5:00 p.m. ET
A loss of life sentence for a Miami gang chief has been shockingly overturned after a decide was uncovered for sending brutal texts to the district legal professional’s workplace.
The State Lawyer’s Workplace introduced it could keep away from the loss of life penalty for Corey Smith, chief of the John Does — a ruthless drug gang in Liberty Metropolis — and as a substitute intention for a lighter sentence after his protection workforce pushed for a retrial, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
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Textual content messages from Choose Bronwyn Miller had been lately revealed, exposing her criticism of protection attorneys and derogatory remarks about different judges in messages exchanged from January to July, as reported by the Miami Herald.
Miller stands accused of pressuring Miami-Dade Lawyer Katherine Fernandez Rundle on the right way to handle Smith’s resentencing after having dealt with his case as a prosecutor twenty years earlier.
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Textual content messages from Choose Bronwyn Miller, who oversaw Smith’s case 20 years in the past, uncovered her makes an attempt to strain DA Katherine Fernandez Rundle on the right way to handle the case.
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Smith was convicted of 4 murders in 2004 and sentenced to loss of life a yr later after a high-profile trial.
Regardless of leaving the State Lawyer’s workplace 20 years in the past, the messages confirmed Miller making an attempt to affect the DA to interchange the decide at present dealing with Smith’s case, Circuit Choose Andrea Ricker Wolfson.
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In a single alternate, Miller informed Fernandez Rundle: “I believe it is best to disqualify her” — referring to Wolfson.
She added: “Then all ruling may be reconsidered.”
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Miller additionally said that Zamft, a former protection legal professional, ought to by no means have been concerned in Smith’s case.
She wrote within the texts: “They play by completely different guidelines. No protection legal professional ought to be coaching [assistant state attorneys]. It ought to be somebody who is aware of that prosecutors are held to increased ethics.”
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Smith’s legal professionals had beforehand pushed for a resentencing however argued that the Miami-Dade State Lawyer’s Workplace was ‘too compromised’ to be concerned within the course of.
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Together with allegedly pressuring Fernandez Rundle about how Smith’s case was being managed, Miller additionally criticized the DA for the people she permitted to work on the case — together with Steve Gosney, a non-public apply lawyer who authored a “sadomasochistic intercourse novel”.
She wrote: “I simply don’t know what’s happening within the workplace anymore. It’s outlandish. I’m sorry.”
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A lot of Fernandez Rundle’s responses had been lacking from the launched information, and it stays unclear whether or not they had been withheld or redacted.
The textual content messages had been submitted by the State’s Lawyer’s Workplace on Friday as a discovery in Smith’s case.
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Miami-Dade Public Defender Carlos Martinez mentioned he has reviewed the textual content messages and is in search of a treatment that can defend his purchasers.
Choose Miller has since sought an opinion from Founding Director Professor Anthony V. Alfieri of the Middle for Ethics and Public Service, who suggested her to not make any public remark presently.
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Smith’s protection attorneys, Allison Miller and Craig Whisenhunt, had been equally shocked to listen to in regards to the textual content messages.
They informed Miami Herald: “Choose Bronwyn Miller has known as into query her health to serve the folks of the state of Florida and known as into doubt each case that has come earlier than her for many years.
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Smith was convicted of 4 murders in 2004 and sentenced to loss of life a yr later after a high-profile trial.
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“The consequence of those revelatory messages shall be substantial and have reverberations throughout our neighborhood and state.
“She concurrently performed the components of decide, prosecutor, witness, and fairly actually tried to subvert justice to see Corey Smith executed.”
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Smith’s legal professionals had beforehand pushed for a resentencing however argued that the Miami-Dade State Lawyer’s Workplace was “too compromised” to be concerned within the course of.
The loss of life sentence was not unanimous, and he’s now set to be resentenced with a court docket look scheduled for Wednesday, NBC Miami reported.
Wolfson is now weighing the opportunity of overturning his sentences, which might require the state to retry him.
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