Bar recognizes excellence in legal reporting.The Florida Bar has selected five media organizations as grand prize winners in the 51st Annual Media Awards competition to recognize excellence in legal reporting. Two other media organizations were also selected as honorable mentions. Each winner was recognized at The Florida Bar's Reporters' Workshop in December. This year's grand prize winners are The Miami Herald and The Florida Times-Union (newspapers and other periodicals with circulation more than 50,000), The Villages Daily Sun (newspapers and other periodicals with circulation less than 50,000), WTSP-TV of St. Petersburg (television), and WUSF of Tampa (radio). Honorable mentions were awarded to The Daytona Beach News-Journal and The Daily Business Review. Each news organization received a plaque bearing its name, and certificates were given to all individuals who contributed to the submissions. When selecting this year's winners, the judges considered such factors as the informational and educational value of the entry, the degree of difficulty of the subject matter, and whether the entry disclosed practices or procedures in need of correction to encourage improvement of the legal system. The Miami Herald received the grand prize in the category of newspapers and other periodicals with circulation more than 50,000 with three entry submissions. One submission, an investigative series about Broward Circuit Judge Eileen O'Connor, prompted the NAACP NAACP in full National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Oldest and largest U.S. civil rights organization. It was founded in 1909 to secure political, educational, social, and economic equality for African Americans; W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. to file an ethics complaint against her with the Judicial Qualifications Commission. The second submission is an investigative piece about Florida's "greenbelt law," which was created to help farmers, but has now become a lucrative tax break for developers. The third piece is about Luis Diaz, who was wrongfully convicted of a murder and set free after 26 years in prison, based on DNA evidence Among the many new tools that science has provided for the analysis of forensic evidence is the powerful and controversial analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, the material that makes up the genetic code of most organisms. . Within days of Diaz's release, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered all law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is a term used to describe any agency which enforces the law. This may be a local or state police, federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). to preserve DNA evidence that could be used by prison inmates seeking to contest their convictions. The Florida Times-Union also received the grand prize in the category of newspapers and other periodicals with circulation more than 50,000 with two entry submissions. One submission is a two-day series on the auto repair industry, which led to legislation being introduced to increase the staffing for the state's regulatory agency regulatory agency Independent government commission charged by the legislature with setting and enforcing standards for specific industries in the private sector. The concept was invented by the U.S. . The second submission is a series of stories revealing that the 475 men in the Florida Civil Commitment Center have no way out. The center houses offenders who have served their court-imposed sentences but remain a threat to society. The extensive reporting on this subject showed readers that a well-meaning law doesn't always bring about the intended results. The Villages Daily Sun is the grand prize winner in the category of newspapers and other periodicals with circulation less than 50,000 with one entry submission. The Daily Sun submitted a series on the guardian ad litem A guardian appointed by the court to represent the interests of Infants, the unborn, or incompetent persons in legal actions. Guardians are adults who are legally responsible for protecting the well-being and interests of their ward, who is usually a minor. program that serves the Fifth Judicial Circuit. The series was designed to capture the fulfillment that existing volunteers experience and provide a detailed explanation of the training and expectations prospective volunteers would encounter. The volunteerism rate soared after the series was published. WTSP-TV is the grand prize winner in the television category. WTSP-TV submitted "Custodians of Abuse," an investigative look into what several women's rights The effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns. The women's rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and groups say is a flaw in several Florida family courts: the granting of joint custody joint custody n. in divorce actions, a decision by the court (often upon agreement of the parents) that the parents will share custody of a child. There are two types of custody, physical and legal. of children in cases where abuse is documented. The story follows one woman's tragic tale of having to share custody of her son, despite documented evidence that the boy's father was both an abusive dad and husband. WUSF is the grand prize winner in the radio category with three entry submissions. The first is a piece on The Jessica Lunsford Act The Jessica Lunsford Act (H.R. 1505 of the 109th Congress), is a proposed federal law in the United States which would, if adopted, mandate more stringent tracking of released sex offenders. The bill is modeled after the Florida state law known as Jessica's Law. . The second submission is a compilation of coverage on the Terri Schiavo case, which went beyond the headlines and helped advance the discussion on end-of-life issues. The third submission is coverage of the Al-Arian trial, which helped to advance the discussion of the Patriot Act. The Daytona Beach News-Journal and The Daily Business Review were selected as honorable mentions. The Daytona Beach News-Journal submitted a series on the lives of convicted sex offenders, which prompted court officials to work on a system for dealing with them. The Daily Business Review submitted three pieces, including "Deadbeat dead·beat 1 Slang n. 1. One who does not pay one's debts. 2. A lazy person; a loafer. adj. Not fulfilling one's obligations or paying one's debts: a deadbeat dad. Doctors," which found that plaintiff lawyers are increasingly reluctant to handle even catastrophic claims because as many as one-third of Florida-licensed doctors carry no malpractice insurance. This year's judges were David Vigilante vigilante n. someone who takes the law into his/her own hands by trying and/or punishing another person without any legal authority. In the 1800s groups of vigilantes dispensed "frontier justice" by holding trials of accused horse-thieves, rustlers and shooters, and of CNN CNN or Cable News Network Subsidiary company of Turner Broadcasting Systems. It was created by Ted Turner in 1980 to present 24-hour live news broadcasts, using satellites to transmit reports from news bureaus around the world. ; Daniel Fowler of The Herald News, Providence, R.I.; Lyrissa Lidsky, professor, University of Florida University of Florida is the third-largest university in the United States, with 50,912 students (as of Fall 2006) and has the eighth-largest budget (nearly $1.9 billion per year). UF is home to 16 colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. Levin College of Law The Fredric G. Levin College of Law is the law school of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. History History of Law School The College of Law was founded in 1909 and was originally housed in Thomas Hall and Bryan Hall. ; Gregory Herbert of Greenberg Traurig; and Marc Randazza of Weston Garrou & Dewitt. |
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