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“ As Project South heads down to Jacksonville, Florida for Marissa Alexander's final hearing, we reflect on our work in alliance with New Jim Crow Movement over the last two and a half years of confrontation with DA Angela Corey's version of state violence.”

FREE MARISSA- INSIDE THIS BRIEF TOOLKIT:

- ARTICLE: Angela Corey is the Bull Connor of the South,
50 years later
- TIMELINE: Corey’s impact on Jacksonville - ARTICLE: Confronting Hostility; Why Southern Movements converged in Jacksonville
- TIMELINE: Women of Color Prosecuted for Defending
Themselves
- TIMELINE: Concise History of Jacksonville, Florida

TIMELINES were compiled by Cita Cook for Project South, 2013-2014 More on the Southern Movement Assembly can be found at:

www.southtosouth.org or www.facebook.com/southernmovementalliance

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Angela Corey is the Bull Connor of the South, 50 years later.

As Project South heads down to Jacksonville, Florida for Marissa Alexander's final hearing, we reflect on our work in alliance with New Jim Crow Movement over the last two and a half years of confrontation with DA Angela Corey's version of state violence.

In 1965, Bull Connor in Birmingham and Sheriff Jim Clark in Selma represented the face of white supremacy and were important guardians of cruelty protecting Jim Crow South as local law enforcement. In public protests, they knocked heads into concrete, tear gassed crowds, and unapologetically defended organized racism. Angela Corey, the top cop District Attorney in Florida's 4th district represents the face of this history today, reflecting a growing trend of 21st century racist cruelty that incarcerates teenagers and domestic abuse survivors while letting murderers walk out without consequence.

Corey's version of legal terror uses the courts instead of the streets to remind us ‘who is boss’ by enforcing public and racist hostility. Her attack on Marissa Alexander is not just about punishing one woman. After Marissa won an appeal and secured a second trial that threw out a 20-year sentence, Angela Corey ran an intimidation campaign, announcing publicly that she would seek a 60-year sentence in the new trial. As much as this fight feels like a personal vendetta, Corey has built her entire career on excessive punitive practices that have set wild records for over-sentencing and sending disproportionate numbers of juveniles to adult court. Corey’s actions in Marissa’s case are directly connected to punishing the growing movement that has risen to confront the public killings of Trayvon Martin in Sanford FL and Jordan Davis in Jacksonville FL, where she also served as prosecutor. Forced into a plea deal that will keep her under state surveillance and detained at her home for two more years, Marissa is part of growing trends in incarceration that force plea deals and keep more and more people under state control in their own homes.

As in the days of Bull Connor, people have not remained silent in the face of this brutality. Social movements are rising again to confront racist violence and the legal frameworks that protect it.

On April 26, 2013, Marissa's mother Ms. Jenkins attended the second Southern Movement Assembly anchored by the New Jim Crow Movement in a park on the historically Black Northside of Jacksonville. Under an old army tent, donated by a local church, a participant read a heartfelt letter written by Marissa to the entire assembly of 250 representatives from 10 states. We stormed the Duval County Courthouse the next day, and the Southern Movement Assembly participants committed to both Marissa's individual fight for freedom and the broader pattern of injustice that this case represents.

A few months after that on July 14, 2013, Angela Corey was smiling at the press conference that announced Zimmerman’s acquittal for the murder of Trayvon Martin. Grassroots movements sprung into action, and the Southern Movement Assembly organized the Walk for Dignity from Jacksonville to Sanford. The call from Aleta Alston-Toure of Jacksonville was met by hundreds of people, over 25 organizations, churches, and community groups. We walked for two demands: Free Marissa Alexander & Fire Angela Corey. This ongoing fight has galvanized new generations of active communities who say: Enough is Enough.

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On the eve of her release into home detention, we recognize the incredible grassroots movements in Florida, around the South, and across the country that have made sure that Marissa’s case was part of a national dialogue and that also made important connections between this case and the growing impunity for violence we see in our communities.

FOR MORE: CHECK OUT WWW.SOUTHTOSOUTH.ORG & THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE’S INITIATIVE

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THE HISTORY OF ANGELA COREY’S IMPACT ON JACKSONVILLE

October 31, 1954 - Angela B. Corey, the granddaughter of Syrian immigrants, was born in Jacksonville, Florida. She grew up on the Southside and majored in Marketing at Florida State University. 1979 - Corey received a doctorate in law from Levin College of Law at the University of Florida. 1981 - 2006 - Corey was hired as an Assistant State Attorney in Florida’s Fourth Judicial Circuit Court (Duval, Nassau, and Clay Counties) and tried hundreds of cases, including sixty-five homicides. 1991 - Harry Shorstein, a Democrat, was appointed to be State Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit. July 1, 1994 – A new law, passed by the Florida legislature in response to a tourist industry panic about teenage criminals, gave prosecutors the power to send juveniles to adult courts without having to wait any longer for a judge to hold a hearing on which court would be most appropriate for each case. 1998 – State Attorney Harry Shorstein established the use of civil citations in Duval County Public Schools, allowing school officers to cite rather than arrest students for certain first-time misdemeanors.

March 1999 – In Wieland v . S tate, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that women have

the right to rely on the battered spouse syndrome as a defense to killing their abuser. 2005 - Shorstein changed Corey’s work assignment from Director of the Gun Crime Unit to Director of the County Court, which handles misdemeanors. She trained newly hired lawyers to be prosecutors. 2006 - Corey announced that she would run against her boss, Harry Shorstein, to be State Attorney. November 2006 - When Shorstein received complaints about Corey as a supervisor, he fired her. Corey said it was because she was running against him. He then announced he would not run for re-election. 2007 - John Tanner, the State Attorney for the Seventh Judicial Circuit, hired Corey. Shorstein was overseeing a grand jury investigation of Tanner’s handling of a Flagler County Jail investigation. August 26, 2008 - Corey won the election as State Attorney in the 4th Circuit with over 64% of the votes. 2009 - Soon after taking office, Corey fired ten assistant state attorneys, over half of the investigators, and forty-eight support employees. That year she sent 230 juvenile felony cases to adult court, twice the number in all the years before she became State Attorney in the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court. August 2009 - Corey asked Florida’s U. S. Senators not to recommend Shorstein for the position of U. S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida because he used “the grand jury for personal vendettas” and said she would refuse to speak with Shorstein if he were appointed. He was not appointed. August 1, 2010 - Marissa Alexander, a thirty-one-year-old African American woman from Jacksonville, fired a warning shot to stop her abusive husband from attacking her. The bullet did not hit anyone. March 14, 2011 - Toddler David Galarrage, the younger half-brother of Cristian Fernandez, was taken to the hospital; he died two days later from a fractured skull and bleeding brain. June 2, 2011 - Corey sought and received a grand jury indictment of twelve-year-old Cristian Fernandez for killing his two-year-old brother and for aggravated child abuse,

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making him the youngest person ever charged with murder in Florida. By combining the two cases, Corey turned the charge into one of felony murder, meaning she would not have to prove premeditation for the murder and could ask for a sentence of life without parole. Although Cristian, whose mother was twelve when he was born, had suffered repeated physical and sexual abuse, Corey decided to try him as an adult, ignoring widespread pressure to try him in juvenile court. She eventually claimed that because she had always intended for him to accept a lesser plea (which he did in 2013), he was never really in danger of receiving a life sentence. December 2011 - Corey was listed as a host for a fundraiser for the re-election of Public Defender Matt Shirk. She was trying to convince Shirk to accept a plea agreement for Cristian Fernandez. January 5, 2012 - Corey charged Cristian Fernandez with sexual battery of his younger half-brother, a charge that was later thrown out by a judge. February 26, 2012 - George Zimmerman, a twenty-eight-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer, shot and killed Trayvon Martin as Martin, a seventeen-year-old African American, was walking from a store in Sanford, Florida to the home where he was staying. A few hours later, the Sanford Police Department declared that they would not be arresting Zimmerman because he had fired in self-defense.

March 2012 - March 22, 2012 - After both Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee and Seminole

County State Attorney Norm Wolfinger resigned from the Zimmerman case, Governor Rick Scott appointed Corey to be the Special Prosecutor. Sandy D’Alemberte, former president of the American Bar Association and former president of Florida State University, emailed that he could not “imagine a worse choice for a prosecutor to serve in the Sanford case.” One reason he gave was that she could not “command the respect of people who care about justice.” Michael Hallett, the Chairman of the University of North Florida’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, said the Zimmerman case would enable her to shift the media focus away from the Cristian Fernandez case and “to show concern for a black victim.” At this time, Corey hired Jackelyn Barnard, a veteran television reporter, as her Director of Communications. April 2012 - In responding to a question about Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, Corey said, “I’ve prosecuted a woman who shot her husband and killed him because he slapped her, and we argued that [the slap] was not deadly force and she was convicted and sent to state prison.” April 11, 2012 - Corey charged George Zimmerman with second degree murder. May 2012 – After Marissa Alexander refused to accept a three-year plea bargain offered by Corey, a jury declared her guilty. She received a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years.

June 2012 - In Miller v . A labama, the Supreme Court ruled that giving a juvenile a

mandatory sentence of life without parole is unconstitutional. This meant that Corey could no longer legally threaten Cristian Fernandez with such a sentence. June 2012 - Alan Dershowitz, a defense attorney and professor at Harvard Law School, criticized Corey for not giving Zimmerman’s defense team the pictures of Zimmerman showing his injuries after the killing, as well as not taking the case to a grand jury. She then tried to convince Harvard University to fire Dershowitz and threatened to sue him for libel and slander, as well as to have him disbarred. June 14, 2012 - Ronald Thompson, a white military veteran in his sixties, received a twenty-year sentence for having shot twice in the ground to try to scare off some teenagers who were threatening his neighbor (the grandmother of one of the young men). Angela Corey had refused to accept the three-year sentence a review judge had said was the only constitutional sentence they could impose. Eventually, Thompson was freed on appeal. He may be too ill to last until another trial. October 2012 - Travis Swanson, a Jacksonville African American youth, was sentenced

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to twenty-two years in prison for a robbery with a BB gun that he was allegedly involved in at seventeen. He was pressured to confess without having been read his Miranda Rights. While Angela Corey was not the trial attorney in the case, it did occur under her jurisdiction. November 23, 2012 - Michael David Dunn, a forty-six year old white software developer became so irritated with the loud music (what he called “thug music”) coming from a car next to him, that he fired into the car and killed Jordan Davis, a seventeen-year-old African American. December 2012 - Wesley White, a prosecutor under Corey, resigned because of disagreements with her priorities as a prosecutor. January 8, 2013 - Angela Corey was sworn in for four more years as Fourth Circuit State Attorney. February 2013 -- Cristian Fernandez pled guilty to manslaughter for the death of his two-year-old half-brother in 2011 when Christian was twelve years old. He was sentenced to detention in a juvenile facility until his nineteenth birthday. February 20, 2013 - Corey announced that she would personally prosecute Michael Dunn for the first-degree murder of Jordan Davis. April 19, 2013 - A fourth high-level employee in the State Attorney’s Office resigned because of disagreements with Corey, including over her decision to grant herself and another official an increase in their pension fund (a legal action). July 13, 2013 - Corey fired Ben Kruidbos, an information technology director in her office, for making public his charge that Corey had withheld from the defense photos of Trayvon Martin that supposedly would make him seem less sympathetic. July 14, 2013 - A jury of six women (five white, one Latina) decided that George Zimmerman was innocent of either second-degree murder or manslaughter when he shot and killed Trayvon Martin. July 15, 2013 - Corey stated in a press conference that the case against Zimmerman was never “about race or the right to bear arms.” July 16, 2013 - Ben Kruidbos announced that he would be filing a whistleblower suit against Corey. July 20, 2013 – About a thousand supporters of the Free Marissa Now coalition protested outside Corey’s office, urging her to resign. July 26, 2013 - Governor Rick Scott rejected the call by the Florida Civil Rights Association to remove Corey from the trial of Michael Dunn, accused of the shooting death of Jordan Davis. August 15, 2013 - The trial of Michael Dunn for the murder of Jordan Davis, with Corey as the prosecuting attorney, was postponed to early 2014. September 26, 2013: Florida’s First District Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of Marissa Alexander, saying that the jury had been given “erroneous” instructions. Angela Corey indicated that she would ask for a new trial. October 2013 – U. S. Rep. Corrine Brown told U. S. News that Corey is notorious among her constituents for overcharging people accused of crimes. November 28, 2013: Marissa Alexander was given house arrest in exchange for $200,000 bail. January 2014 – In a luncheon speech, Corey stated that the media shouldn’t be allowed to report on high-profile cases since “The public doesn’t need to know anything about a case before it goes to trial.” January 5, 2014 – The parents of Jordan Davis settled a civil lawsuit against Michael David Dunn because he had shot and killed their son. Dunn’s insurance company declared that it should not have to pay the settlement and Dunn had already been declared legally broke.

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January 20, 2014 – Angela Corey’s office requested that Circuit Court Judge James Daniel revoke Marissa Alexander’s bail, claiming she had violated her release conditions when she had left her house to do things such as shop for clothes, renew her driver’s license, and visit her sister-in-law. Daniel refused, saying Alexander had gained approval from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in each case. February 3, 2014 – The Florida Times-Union reported that between 2009 and 2013, the Fourth Judicial Circuit, headed by State Attorney Angela Corey, had issued 1,475 direct commitments, requiring juveniles to choose between being charged as an adult and accepting assignment to a juvenile facility; they often have had to make this choice without being allowed to know or question the evidence against them. During that same period, there were only 34 direct commitments in Miami, where there are twice as many youth as in the Jacksonville area. Angela Corey’s office issued a statement saying, “Juvenile cases…are handled no differently than how an adult case moves through the judicial system.” February 16, 2014 – After thirty-two hours of deliberations over four days, a jury ruled that Michael David Dunn was guilty of three counts of second-degree attempted murder for his having endangered the lives of the three friends of Jordan Davis but deadlocked on the charge of first degree murder for killing Davis. When Circuit Judge Russell Healey declared a mistrial for that count, Corey called for a retrial. Although the convictions could lead to a sentence of at least sixty years, the judge decided not to impose a sentence until after the second trial, currently set for September 22, 2014. February 18, 2014 – Juror Number Four from the Michael Dunn trial, a white woman, reported on ABC’s “Nightline” that nine of the twelve jurors had favored a conviction for the first-degree murder charge for killing Jordan Davis because they did not believe that Dunn was ever in real danger from any of the four teenagers. The jury did not, however, discuss whether race might have been a factor in the crime because “it was never presented that way.” March 10, 2014 – The National Organization for Women announced that it was calling for the resignation of State Attorney Angela Corey because of how she was handling the case against Marissa Alexander. Florida New Majority, another group which has backed Alexander’s release, announced that they were looking for candidates to run against Corey in 2016. March 11, 2014 – The Florida Times-Union reported that since 2009, Angela Corey had sent more people to death row than any other prosecutor in the state. The total was 25% of those in Florida, even though her jurisdiction represents less than 7% of the population and 8% of Florida’s murder rate. Of the 21 people her office sentenced to be executed, 66% were African American; only 25% of the people in her district are black. March 18, 2014 – Jackelyn Barnard from Angela Corey’s office sent an email to state legislators from Northeast Florida describing Corey’s version of what happened when Marissa Alexander fired a gun in the presence of Rico Gray and their interactions after that, supposedly so the legislators would know how to respond to questions about the case. Bruce Zimet, Alexander’s attorney, responded that Corey’s narrative was only one version of the facts of the case. The state legislature at that time, influenced by Alexander’s case, was considering a bill to expand the Stand Your Ground Law to grant those with a credible fear for their lives immunity from prosecution for warning shots. March 19, 2014 – Color of Change, a national advocacy group, asked Governor Rick Scott to suspend Angela Corey because the way she was conducting her job was similar to the style of “Jim Crow era prosecutors and legal authorities.” Corey’s spokeswoman, Jackelyn Barnard, told U. S. News that Corey had a “thirty-two year record of seeking justice for all victims, regardless of gender or race.”

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April 3, 2014 – Corey had agreed to meet with a group of Jacksonville clergy in the Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation, and Empowerment (ICARE) to discuss the possibility of issuing more juvenile civil citations instead of criminal charges. When she saw that they had asked the media and parishioners to be there, she debated with them for about ten minutes and then left. According to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, from March 2013 to February 2014, only 26% of young people eligible for a citation instead of a criminal charge received them, while the rate in Miami-Dade County was 86%. Corey claimed those figures were incorrect. April 8, 2014 – The Jacksonville City Council agreed to delay voting on a resolution calling for an increase in the use of civil citations for juveniles until State Attorney Angela Corey could speak to them. April 15, 2014 – Corey issued a public statement stressing her support for the use of non-custodial arrests, including civil citations, except in cases when there is a victim since prosecutors in Florida are obligated to consult with victims before determining the status of accused people. May 18, 2014 – Supporters of the Jacksonville Juvenile Drug Court, including Chief Circuit Judge Donald Moran, stated their concern that this alternative to a criminal record for juveniles may be closed or cut back because Angela Corey’s office has referred so few of the eligible youth: 19 in 2013, as compared to 92 in 2009. Corey’s spokeswoman said there are legitimate reasons for the lower number, but Public Defender Matt Shirk plans to lobby the legislature to allow judges to send someone to juvenile drug court without consulting a prosecutor, as they already can do in the case of adults. May 27, 2014 – The Jacksonville City Council, disagreeing with the position Angela Corey had presented to them, passed a resolution calling for more efficient use of the civil citation process for eligible first-time misdemeanor juveniles, as the Florida legislature had encouraged all communities in Florida to do in 2011 through HB 997. June 10, 2014 – Judge James Daniel pushed the date of a retrial for Marissa Alexander to December 2014 in order to be able to consider the implications of the new WarningShot Bill. June 20, 2014 – Governor Rick Scott signed house Bill 89, known as the Warning Shot Law, legalizing the threat of force in circumstances when actual force would be permitted as self-defense. The Marissa Alexander case was one of the primary inspirations for the bill. July 18, 2014 – Judge James Daniel ruled that Marissa Alexander is not entitled to a 2nd immunity hearing under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, saying the appellate ruling calling for a new case addressed only the jury instructions, not the facts of the case and the new warning shots law could not be applied retroactively, even though the law was partly inspired by her case.

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    T ! ! Pam Bondi: Working to Shut Down Tech Support Scams . .2 Hats Off: Jerry Rosenberg . .10 FUGITIVES Angela Corey: Troubled Youth Diversion Programs . .2 Missing Persons . .11 CAPTURED 2949 Protect and Serve . .3 Unsolved Murders . .12 A Message from Sheriff Mike Williams . .4 JSO Most Wanted . .13 MISSING Seniors vs. Crime . .6 Busted; Clay and Baker Most Wanted . .14 PERSONS Heroin: The New Drug of Choice . .7 ! Bradford, St. Johns, and Nassau Most Wanted . .15 FOUND 183 Ride for Justice Photos . .8 & 9 ! Tickets Available at justicecoalitiion.org Special Thanks; Ride for Justice Acknowledgements . .16 ! AVAILABLE ONLINE 24/7 A UGU ST 2 016 WWW.JUSTICECOALITION.ORG Volume 22 • Number 5 • FREE JSO Increases The Risks of Bullying Police Presence on Streets and New Efforts to End It By Ray Tuenge, Jr. By Mayor Lenny Curry “One-third of today’s youth A few weeks ago, I joined live with a daily fear. It’s not Sheriff Mike Williams for a death. It’s not divorce. It’s having press conference announcing to walk through school doors the results of the city’s invest - Monday through Friday. They ment in overtime pay for JSO don’t fear failing a test or class; police officers. In last year’s they fear another day of having to budget, we allocated $1.5 mil - face a bully at school.” These lion to meet Sheriff Williams’ request for addi - words are shown at the start of a tional overtime hours. This funding supported six-minute YouTube video that 24,000 man hours of additional overtime in prior - has accumulated over 10,000 ity areas.
  • Punitive Impulse and the Bid to Repeal Stand Your Ground

    Punitive Impulse and the Bid to Repeal Stand Your Ground

    University of Miami Law Review Volume 68 Number 4 Volume 68 Number 4 (Summer 2014) Eleventh Circuit Issue: "Stand Your Ground" Article 4 Laws 7-1-2014 Race to Incarcerate: Punitive Impulse and the Bid to Repeal Stand Your Ground Aya Gruber Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Aya Gruber, Race to Incarcerate: Punitive Impulse and the Bid to Repeal Stand Your Ground, 68 U. Miami L. Rev. 961 (2014) Available at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol68/iss4/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Miami Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ARTICLES Race to Incarcerate: Punitive Impulse and the Bid to Repeal Stand Your Ground AYA GRUBER* Stand-your-ground laws have come to symbolize, especially for many in the center-to-left, the intense racial injustice of the modern American criminal system. The idea now ingrained in the minds of many racial justice-seekers is that only by narrowing the definition of self-defense (and thereby generally strengthening murder law) can we ensure Trayvon Martin's death was not in vain. However, when the story of Martin's killing first appeared on the national stage, the conversation was not primarily about the overly lenient nature of Florida's self- defense law.
  • New Odd Template

    New Odd Template

    CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK P A Wild First baby G A Porch E Ways of 2009 in Egypt PAGE 8A PAGE 10A PAGE 5B 2 75¢ WEDNESDAY, January 7, 2009 / 22 PAGES, 3 SECTIONS • www.fbnewsleader.com Sellers, not buyers County gets new top prosecutor SHANNON MALCOM New Fourth News-Leader Judicial District State Attorney Local attorney Wesley White has Angela Corey been appointed director of the Nassau announced White’s County State Attorney’s Office. appointment at a He will replace Assistant State swearing-in ceremo- Attorney Stephen Bledsoe, who will ny Tuesday at the return to the Jacksonville office. Nassau County Bledsoe had replaced Granville “Doc” White Judicial Annex. Burgess after he won election as coun- Corey and new ty judge in 2006. Public Defender White, who has a law practice in Matthew Shirk both were sworn in Fernandina Beach and lives in Yulee, Tuesday, the first time that took place will become the county’s top prose- cuting attorney. WHITE Continued on 3A Willette to direct Council on Aging News-Leader “These are par- ticularly difficult RYAN SMITH/NEWS-LEADER The Council on Aging has appoint- times for non-profit Fred Lindes, above, owner and operator of Island Pawn, 1421 ed Kenneth J. Willette as executive organizations as the ‘Business is South 10th St., says not as many people are coming into his shop director of the agency. He replaces Al number of people in to buy these days due to the economic downturn. However, many Rizer, who left in October for a similar need is increasing people come in to sell or pawn their property.
  • 32349 Apr 26 01

    32349 Apr 26 01

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  • II. Do Children Belong in the Adult Criminal Justice System?

    II. Do Children Belong in the Adult Criminal Justice System?

    HUMAN BRANDED FOR LIFE RIGHTS Florida’s Prosecution of Children as Adults under its WATCH “Direct File” Statute Branded for Life Florida’s Prosecution of Children as Adults under its “Direct File” Statute Copyright © 2014 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-62313-1180 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org APRIL 2014 978-1-62313-1180 Branded for Life Florida’s Prosecution of Children as Adults under its “Direct File” Statute Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1 Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 7 To the Florida Legislature .........................................................................................................