Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Judge Belvin Perry, Jr. to preside at status hearing in the murder trial of Casey Anthony

UPDATE!

I've been checking on the Clerk of the Court site daily for the four "mystery motions" which were out in the news the Monday Judge Strickland stepped down. They are not currently posted as submitted to the court as of the present time. If they are posted prior to the hearing tomorrow, I will add them to the list below as there may have been some minor changes made (such as corrected dates and signatures).

For the time being, I will post the originals posted on CFNews13 here:

SECOND MOTION TO PRECLUDE DEATH PROCEDURES FOR IMPERMISSIBLE PROSECUTORIAL MOTIVES

MOTION TO PRECLUDE THE STATE'S IMPERMISSIBLE, GENDER BIASED, REQUEST FOR IMPOSITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY

Protective Order with Respect to Penalty Phase Discovery

To read the last two, go to the original ARTICLE.

The content of Judge Belvin Perry's first hearing in the Casey Anthony murder trial is rather mundane. The judge will listen as the defense team presents a list of motions which have yet to be heard. The team of Jose Baez and Cheney Mason, or should I say Cheney Mason and Jose Baez, will need to tell the judge which motions need to be argued before the court and which the judge can rule on without being heard. If Andrea Lyon is present, she will have to cut short her arguments in front of this judge.

As of the present time, there are no motions pending from the State.

The hearing will be televised on InSession and streamed by the usual stations on Friday, April 30 at 9:30 A.M. Usually, InSession will spend the first half hour previewing the hearing and is usually very helpful if you get TruTV.

The viewing audience will mainly be glued to the attorneys' behavior in court to watch how they react to Perry's tightened-up rules of discipline which he included in the Order Setting Case Management Hearing.

There is one section that is bold-faced in the order and bears repeating here:

12. Counsel shall admonish all persons at the counsel table who make gestures, facial expressions, audible comments, or the like, as manifestations of approval or disapproval during the testimony of a witness, or at any other time. This behavior is strictly prohibited.

This rule is going to put a lot of stress on Jose Baez especially. As the rookie of the counsel table, he has done his share of smirking and making inappropriate comments in front of Judge Strickland. Cheney Mason will probably adapt a bit more easily, having appeared before a wide variety of judges in the Ninth Circuit. Jeff Ashton has argued death penalty cases before Judge Perry before, and I'm sure he also knows how to behave. As for Linda Drane Burdick, well, she is always the epitome of decorum in the courtroom!

Casey's parents, George and Cindy Anthony will also have to clean up their act in order to comply with this rule:

15. No tobacco use in any form is permitted. No bottles, beverage containers, paper cups or edibles are allowed in the courtroom, except as permitted by the Court. No gum chewing is permitted.

If you haven't already done so, read all the rules that are included at the end of the order that was linked above. There are a lot of changes in courtroom decorum that will take place Friday!

Next, we have the actual objective of the order, which is to discuss pending motions. I am old-fashioned and need to see motions on paper to properly read and annotate. As the motions are heard, I take notes on their disposition and clip them to a copy of the T&T post about the hearing.

The pending motions remain in my active file and I can search out which ones will be heard at the next hearing. For this hearing, I've gone through my "pending motion file" and put them in the order of their filing date. I've gone through my file of motions and the list from the Clerk of the Court. I've also provided as many links as possible.

Filed 8/20/09
This motion was never specifically ruled on and may be moot at this point as recent document dumps reveal information requested.

RENEWED MOTION TO COMPEL BENCH NOTES, STANDARDS, DATA, AND COMMUNICATIONS WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT ET AL.

Filed 9/17/09

AMENDED MOTION FOR CHANGE OF VENUE

Filed 11/3/09

MOTION TO DISMISS DEFECTIVE INDICTMENT

Filed 11/19/09

DEFENDANT'S MOTION IN LIMINE TO INTRODUCE PRIOR BAD ACTS AND OTHER CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE PERTAINING TO ROY M. KRONK


Filed 11/25/09

Some of the links to individual motions here are broken. WFTV posted all the motions as one document and is still working. To read these motions, link HERE.

MOTION TO DECLARE FLORIDA STATUTE SECTION 921.141 UNCONSTITUTIONAL UNDER RING V. ARIZONA

MOTION TO DECLARE FLA. STAT. 921.141(5)(b) AND/OR THE STANDARD (5)(b) JURY INSTRUCTION UNCONSTITUTIONAL FACIALLY AND AS APPLIED

MOTION TO DECLARE SECTION 921.141(5)(d) FLORIDA STATUTE AND/OR THE section 921.141(5)(d) STANDARD INSTRUCTION UNCONSTITUTIONAL FACILLY AND AS APPLIED AND TO PRECLUDE THEIR APPLICATION AT BAR

MOTION TO DECLARE FLORIDA STATUTES 921.141(5)(I) UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND TO PRECLUDE ITS USE IN THE PRESENT CASE

MOTION TO DECLARE FLORIDA STATUE 921.141(5)(L) UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND TO PRECLUDE ITS USE AT BAR.

DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A STATEMENT OF PARTICULARS PROVIDING NOTICE OF AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES

WRITTEN OBJECTION TO THE STANDARD JURY INSTRUCTION ON REASONABLE DOUBT

MOTION TO DECLARE 921.141(5)(M) UNCONSTITUTIONAL FACIALLY AND AS APPLIED (VICTIM VULNERABLE DUE TO AGE, DISABILITY, OR FAMILIAL OR CUSTODIAL AUTHORITY)

MOTION TO DECLARE 921.141 FLORIDA STATUTES UNCONSTITUTIONAL BECAUSE IT IMPROPERLY SHIFTS BURDENS OF PROOF TO THE DEFENDANT, THEREBY CREATING A PRESUMPTION OF DEATH

MOTION TO PROHIBIT ANY REFERENCE TO THE JURY'S ROLE AT THE PENALTY PHASE BEING 'ADVISORY' OR TO THE JURY'S PENALTY VERDICT AS BEING A 'RECOMMENDATION'

MOTION TO DECLARE FLORIDA STATUTE 921.141 UNCONSTITUTIONAL, DUE TO ITS FAILURE TO NARROW THE SCOPE OF THE DEATH PENALTY

MOTION FOR JURY INSTRUCTIONS CORRECTLY DEFINING "PREMEDITATION"

Thank you, Andrea Lyon and students for that batch. I'm hoping the judge decides that he can rule on these without argument in court!

Filed 12/22/09

OBJECTION TO AMENDED MOTION FOR APPLICATION FOR SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM

This motion was filed by Martin G. White, attorney for Jesse Grund. It hasn't come up in any of the hearings and could possibly be moot.

Filed 3/8/10

OMNIBUS MOTION TO EXCLUDE HERESAY EVIDENCE, GOSSIP, AND INNUENDO

DEFENDANT'S MOTION IN LIMINE TO EXCLUDE LAY OPINION TESTIMONY

MOTION IN LIMINE TO EXCLUDE IRRELEVANT EVIDENCE OF "PARTY PICTURES"


The hearing will also discuss the time lines for evidence, depositions, etc. The latest document on this was issued by Judge Strickland on March 5, 2010.

AMENDED PROPOSED ORDER SETTING DISCOVERY, MOTION and HEARING DEADLINES and TRIAL DATE.

I notice it's still a "proposed" order and it will be interesting to hear what Judge Perry has to say!

You will all probably notice that the last four "motions" recently publicized have not been included. THEY'VE NEVER BEEN FILED!

I hope you all enjoy the hearing on Friday!

16 comments:

katfish said...

Ritanita,
I'm looking forward to your summary of this case management hearing after the fact.

I didn't notice the order by Judge Strickland for deadlines and trial date was a "proposed" order. That makes sense though, because either party can ask for a continuance. Of course,in this case,a new presiding judge may or may not change the schedule. One thing Judge Perry's ,sua sponte, case management order makes very clear....he will enforce the existing rules and that's a good thing.

It may just be my wishful thinking, but in some of the clips and photographs of Judge Perry,I have noticed a twinkle in his eye, which in my experience is an indicator of a lively sense of humor. I guess we will see.

Thanks for sharing your list of motions. I use a system much like you explained for paying my bills. LOL

ritanita said...

Katfish,

I don't think we are going to see a twinkle in Judge Perry's eyes at THIS hearing!

He's going to set the tone for the rest of the trial, for sure. The results of the hearing are almost incidental, the behavior of the principals in the case will be the main feature!

As a retired teacher, I know very well that there are two types of badly behaved kids. The first kind get away with whatever the teacher will tolerate. The other kind is just plain badly behaved.

I'm curious to see which kind Baez is.

This hearing won't tell us much about Casey, IMHO, because they won't be going through and arguing motions.

As far as her parents are concerned... I'm betting on Cindy to be the one who might push the rules.

In my head I'm thinking of Judge Fidler in the Phil Spector trials. One warning only! After that, you're out of there!

I don't pay the bills in our family, my husband does because he has his own system, all on the computer. At the end of every quarter, he provides me charts showing how much I spent in each category!

Sprocket said...

Ah, ritanita, you mentioned Judge Fidler and his admonishments!

I'll never forget him getting angry and yelling at the 3rd Mrs. Spector, lol! What a treat to behold.

At least he apologized to me (after my stern warning) the following court day. At least I can laugh about it now.

donchais said...

So, will Perry have the bailiff go to Cindy, instruct her to take the gum out of her mouth and wear it on her nose for the remainder of the hearing, lol?

This should be very interesting to say the least!

Ronni said...

So Baez et al are out of the frying pan and into the fire.

ritanita said...

Sprocket, I remember the moment the judge admonished you. For some reason, I knew it was you, although the cameras couldn't show the spectators. You're the only one Fidler ever appologized to!

Donchais, I wonder if Cindy will apply for a dispensation from the gum and water bottle. Without her emotional crutches, she may have a hard time controlling her temper!

Ronni, I couldn't have said it better myself!

Dave Knechel said...

Check the time on Friday. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30, but coverage on tru is slated for 9.

shari said...

Donchais, the gum on the nose was such a vivid description that I nearly rolled on the floor.

Anonymous said...

I have read that there is a school of thought that if a lawyer has a judge removed, he will like the replacement a lot less.

David From TN

Katprint said...

Re the "Proposed" order setting deadlines: These orders are prepared in advance and submitted to the parties who are permitted to ask the court to make whatever appropriate modifications. Once it is signed by the judge, it is an official Order just like any other Order of the court.

I would be surprised if Judge Perry changed Judge Strickland's prior scheduling order very much. In general, judges respect prior decisions and orders made by other judges ("the law of the case") unless there is some compelling reason not to. Otherwise the courts would be in chaos every time a judge rotated/retired/went on vacation/was out sick. Also, there is a fairness aspect when the court has ordered a particular schedule because the parties would have relied on that order in scheduling their other cases; it would be unfair to change the order and disrupt their schedules unless there was a good reason ("good cause") to do so.

katfish said...

Ritanita,
I agree that we won't see much in the way of humor tomorrow (unless of course, Cindy winds up with gum on her nose. hehe that's a rich picture, thanks Donchais).

I look forward to your report of the hearing. :)

That's nice your husband takes care of the bills. Mr.katfish doesn't even like to write checks...but I can't complain...I fostered that attitude back in the day when I worked and shopped on my lunch hour, what he didn't know didn't hurt him. I pay my bills online, but still feel the need to have those paper bills that I can attach a payment confirmation to....I guess it's the fear my computer will crash. LOL

FRG said...

Ritanita,
Congratulations!!!! You had listed all of the Motions not heard and even the new ones and the "incompetent JB" didn't know, can you believe that??? Surprise, surprise!!! JB didn't come to the hearing prepared!!!!
So you "RULE" Ritanita!!!! Kudos for you!!!!

ritanita said...

I missed the spoliaton of evidence motion. Reason was, it was so dog-eared and I filed it with the hearing where it was first heard. I even made a note that it wasn't settled.

That was because the State filed the motion for the defense witness list we didn't get in February...

FRG said...

Ritanita,
One demerit for you! Just kidding!!!
You are great!!! Defense is messed up and they should know by heart what Motions were NOT heard for sure, in my lay person opinion, of course, how do they KEEP filing more Motions IF they DO NOT know the ones that were NOT heard, does it make sense to you? Not to me!!!!
So, you are wonderful!!!! Let's toast!!!! Cheers!!!
can't wait for your next article!!!

ritanita said...

As they were schedueling hearing, I'm telling donchais, THERE GOES MY LIFE for the next couple of weeks!

I'm waiting for the hearing to be put up and I'm going to replay it so I don't miss anything.

I'll have an article up over the weekend.

I just heard on InSession that the defense filed a motion to object to Strickland's order! They apparently didn't like his sarcasm. I can't wait to read it!

shari said...

ritanita, I am with you on the motion to object to Judge Stricklands order........I can't wait to read it either. What whiney (sp?) babies this group is...Just drop it and move on. They sure get hurt feelings easily for lawyers. Aren't they supposed to be a little tougher than this?