A lot of activity has been going on in Lambrix’s case since the last June 2009 update with post conviction appeals based upon newly discovered evidence supporting Lambrix’s long pled claim of actual innocence now before both the Florida Supreme Court (Lambrix v. State, Fla. S. Ct no. S008-0064) and the lower trial court (Lambrix v. State, Glades County Case # 83-12CF-ATC).

Additionally, on September 29, 2009 Lambrix filed a comprehensive “section 1983” action raising numerous specifically pled “Causes of Action” that individually and collectively challenge the constitutionality of Florida’s capital post conviction review (appeal) process. In detail, Lambrix argues that the State of Florida and those acting in behalf of the state have deliberately created a dysfunctional and fundamentally unfair post conviction appeal process that by design and intent serves to obstruct death sentenced prisoners’ fundamental constitutional right to fair and meaningful review in violation of both procedural and substantive Due process, and that this fundamentally unfair appeal process creates a substantial and constitutionally intolerable risk that Florida will inevitably and unnecessarily execute innocent people.

This exhaustive civil action is now docketed in the Leon County Circuit Court as Lambrix v. McNeil, et al, case no. 2009-CA-003819. The specific causes of Action raised in this civil complaint will be summarized below. The entire civil action can easily be pulled up and read here.

As for matter regarding the litigation of Lambrix’s post conviction appeals arguing actual innocence, since the last case update (June 2009) the Florida Supreme Court has now scheduled oral arguments for Wednesday November 4, 2009 at 9 am. You can personally watch these oral arguments online live at that time at www.wfsu.org/gavel2gavel although in light of the negative attention this case is drawing, don’t be surprised if the Florida Supreme Court cancels the scheduled oral arguments abruptly. There are numerous members of the court – including Chief Justice Peggy Quince who was previously part of the post conviction prosecution who do not want Lambrix’s case publically heard.

To further illustrate the pervasive political corruption that has plagues Lambrix’s capital case, several months ago yet another bombshell unexpectedly dropped. Those familiar with this capital case already know that the original prosecutor, Chief Deputy State Attorney Randall McGruther was and is the primary force in both initiating and perpetuating this inconceivable injustice. McGruther has methodically stalked Lambrix’s execution from day one. As a career prosecutor and undeniably part of the close-knit inner circle in Southwest Florida’s Twentieth Judicial Circuit, McGruther also climbed he political ladder through the years, Please read, “Anatomy of a Corrupt Prosecutor,” and like the infamous John Gotti ~ the “Teflon Don” ~ any allegations of misconduct were quickly brushed aside.

But then on August 16, 2009 the Ft. Myers News-press (reporter Rachel Revehl) published an article entitled “Lee County sheriff’s links with convicted felon raises influence fears,” in which it was revealed that numerous political figures in Southwest Florida has formed what amounts to a “political cabal” designed to control and influence political elections in Southwest Florida.

Most importantly, it was revealed that these elected officials ~ including Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott, elected State Attorney Steve Russell, and former elected State Attorney Joseph D’Alessandro formed and association with a convicted felon named Richard Spence who had been convicted in 1995 of money laundering and kidnapping in New York. Spence had pled guilty to laundering at least $100 Million dollars of illegal drug money for the Columbian “Cali Cartel,” who at the time was the largest importer of cocaine into the United States.

Why would elected state attorneys and law enforcement officials form a political alliance with a known associate of the Columbian drug cartels? What the records now show is that the purpose of this unholy alliance was to use Richard Spence to organize and manage political fundraisers – it can only be assumed that they figured that if Spence could launder $100 million dollars for the Columbian drug lords, then surely he could prove as equally adept at manipulating political fundraisers to pump substantial amounts of money into the election campaigns of those this insidious political cabal wanted in office.

Further investigations revealed just how much this small group of people had deliberately corrupted political campaigns ~ and methodically controlled the election of local officials, including locally elected circuit court judges and high ranking state and federal officials. According to published articles, through these political fundraisers organized by this political cabal, substantial amounts of money was raised to funs the election of Florida’s current Governor, Charlie Crest and U.S. Senator Connie Mack.

To the extent this incredible revelation of widespread political corruption directly impacts Lambrix’s capital case, after becoming aware if this unholy alliance between convicted felon Richard Spence and the state attorney’s office, further investigations now show that Chief Deputy State Attorney Randall McGruther (the prosecutor in this capital case) was actually even more involved with Richard Spence in there political fundraisers than Sheriff Mike Scott and State Attorney Steven Russell.

What is now known is that the Circuit Court Judge R. Thomas Corbin that presided over Lambrix’s case since early 2000 was up for re-election in 2006, during the time that McGruther and his political cabal effectively controlled elections in the area. Lambrix’s post conviction appeal was heard by Judge R. Thomas Corbin during that time, and McGruther personally appeared as a witness. Judge Corbin never revealed that his upcoming re-election depended upon remaining in good favor with McGruther and this tight-knit political alliance during the time McGruther testified as a material witness in Lambrix’s case.

The transcripts of the July 2006 “evidentiary hearing” clearly shows that when McGruther testified, Judge Corbin improperly refused to allow Lambrix’s counsel to question McGruther about alleged prosecutorial misconduct relevant to his testimony. It has been later learned that every time allegations of prosecutorial misconduct were brought against McGruther, it was always Judge R. Thomas Corbin who was assigned to hear the complaints – and then always summarily denied the allegations.

Further, upon looking into the previously undisclosed relationship between Judge Corbin and the state attorney’s office, it was discovered throughout the post conviction proceedings before the lower court, Judge R. Thomas Corbin consistently used staff attorney Steve Hooper as his legal assistant without revealing that at this time Steve Hooper’s wife Gloria Hooper was employed by the D’Allessando real estate company primarily owned by Joseph D’Allessando the former state attorney at the time Lambrix was prosecuted, convicted, and condemned to death.

One of the most fundamental rules of constitutional law is that every person is entitled to have their case heard before a fair and impartial judge, who does not have an interest in the outcome. Lambrix’s claim of innocence is founded primarily upon specific allegations, supported by evidence, that the state’s sole “key witness” Frances Smith collaborated and conspired with members of the state attorney’s office to deliberately fabricate the wholly circumstantial case of alleged premeditated murder, with the intent to have Lambrix wrongfully convicted and condemned to death.

A substantial wealth of evidence was presented to the court to support these specifically pled allegations which if ruled in Lambrix’s favor would require a finding that then elected State Attorney Joseph D’Allessando and Chief Deputy State Attorney Randall McGruther knowingly sent an innocent man to death row. Despite the overwhelming wealth of evidence to support these allegations, Judge Corbin summarily denied Lambrix’s claims for relief by finding that all the evidence Lambrix presented was not credible and that Randall McGruther, and other members of the state attorney’s office, provided credible testimony denying the allegations.

As stated above, when hearing this wealth of evidence and the testimony or Chief Deputy State Attorney Randall McGruther, Judge Corbin never revealed his political relationship with McGruther and this political cabal, even though it’s now clear that Judge Corbin’s re-election depended upon this ruling in favor of McGruther.

In Light of this new evidence of deliberate judicial misconduct Lambrix recently filed a “Motion of Disqualification of Judge Corbin, etc” – but in direct and deliberate contradiction of established law, Judge R. Thomas Corbin personally summarily denied this motion, claiming it was “legally insufficient.” (An appeal of this improper denial will soon be filed with the Florida Supreme Court and posted on this website.)

In addition for the above new development, in light of the recently discovered new evidence (See, “June 2009 Case Update”) Lambrix has now filled a “motion to Compel DNA testing of Evidence” with the original trial court – of course, Judge Corbin is still presiding, and will undoubtedly summarily deny this motion.

However, the motion to do DNA Testing of evidence is important. As detailed in the previous “June 2009 Case Update” only recently has it come to light that the State did find forensic evidence on the alleged “murder weapon” and deliberately concealed this evidence when they realized that the “blonde to blondish-brown” hairs found did not match the alleged victims.

In Florida “Rule 3.853” allows for the DNA testing of forensic evidence at “anytime” providing that the movant can make a sufficient argument as to how this DNA evidence would exonerate him. Unlike conventional post conviction appeals that are subject to strictly enforced time limitations, a Rule 3.853 Motion can be filed years later – and often is as the science of DNA testing simply was not available until relatively recently, especially the type of “Mitochondrial DNA analysis” used to extract and analyze DNA from hair samples.

The convicted defendant bears the burden of showing that if this DNA evidence is tested, the results will exonerate him. By “exoneration,” applicable law requires that the defendant show how this DNA evidence would sufficiently undermine confidence in the verdict. Lambrix’s motion fully argues how this new now available DNA evidence would result in his acquittal. You can read this entire “Motion to Compel DNA Testing” here.

If the court does grant the Motion to Compel DNA Testing, and the tests come back to show that as specifically alleged by Lambrix that these hairs do belong to the key witness, Frances Smith, then for the reasons argued in that motion, Lambrix would be automatically entitled to have his capital convictions vacated in their entirety.

Finally, as summarized above, on September 29th 2009 Lambert filed a comprehensive “Section 1983” civil action against numerous state agents specifically alleging that Florida’s capital post conviction review (appeal) process itself is deliberately dysfunctional and fundamentally unfair thus is violation of Constitutional Due Process, and that this fundamentally unfair review process creates a constitutionally intolerable substantial risk that Florida will inevitably execute innocent people.

This lawsuit is virtually unprecedented as although there has been many types of constitutional challenges to the validity of the death penalty, such as recent challenges to the manner in which lethal injection is used to execute the condemned, nobody has previously argued that the appellate process itself has become so inherently corrupted by the insidious “politics of death” that it renders the post conviction review process itself unconstitutional.

Briefly said, a convicted felon (including those on death row) has a fundamental constitutional right to challenge the conviction through post conviction appeals. Given the alarming rate of wrongful convictions a fair and meaningful post conviction review is essential to protecting against the execution of the innocent. Numerous independent studies have now shown beyond any doubt that our criminal justice system is plagued by error – not the least of which is a leading cause of wrongful conviction of the innocent is deliberate prosecutorial misconduct in which those we trust to prosecute criminal cases all too often deliberately conceal material evidence supporting innocence, fabricate evidence, and knowingly present false evidence. Without meaningful post conviction review those who have been wrongfully convicted and even condemned to death would have no means in which to present the necessary evidence supporting innocence and inevitably Florida would be subjecting innocent men and women to execution.

In this comprehensive civil action Lambrix specifically presents eleven (11) “causes of Action” detailing how the political corruption of Florida’s capital post conviction review has effectively created a system that unconstitutionally obstructs death-sentenced prisoners from pursuing and obtaining fair and meaningful post conviction review – especially in capital cases in which a legitimate claim or actual innocence is raised.

It should be noted that for several years Lambrix had attempted to find legal counsel willing to take on this unprecedented challenge to the constitutionality of Florida’s capital post conviction review process to no avail. Finally, Lambrix was compelled to file this challenge himself. As stated about this civil action is now before the Leon County Circuit Civil Court as Lambrix v. McNeil, et al, case no # 2009-CA-003819 and is posted on line here.

The primary objective in this civil action is to compel the courts to confront the political corruption of Florida’s capital post conviction legal representation system in which through the years the pro-death penalty politicians who control the funding of the state agencies responsible for providing post conviction representation have manipulated these offices into providing what amounts to a deliberate pretense of representation intended to effectively obstruct and circumvent capital (death-sentenced) prisoners’ constitutional right to pursue meaningful post conviction review.

In fact, this website has previously posted numerous blog articles detailing this insidious political corruption. Please read, “The Resurrection of the Star Chamber,” “Post Conviction Representation: Privilege or Pretense,” and countless articles that have been written by numerous legal experts that also argue against the political corruption of the process.

Additionally, Lambrix seeks specific Causes of Action against Florida’s Governor, Charlie Crist, Florida’s Attorney general Bill McCollum, Florida’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince, and numerous others specifically detailing how each personally has engaged in unethical and unconstitutional actions intended to obstruct and impede Lambrix’s ability to receive fair and meaningful post conviction review of his long pled claim of innocence.

Although this comprehensive civil action is admittedly long-winded, the details (alleged facts) collectively portray a graphic illustration of the pervasive politically motivated corruption that only too often plagues the death penalty process. This website will provide updates to the litigation of the civil action and a dedicated “blog” site has also been set up to follow this comprehensive civil action at www.lambrixvmcneil.blogspot.com

Those that are interested in how the capital post conviction review process itself works should read this civil action in its entirety. If Lambrix is successful in pursuing this civil action then it could have a ripple effect throughout all the states that continue to pursue the death penalty.

Lambrix continues to hope that qualified legal counsel will volunteer to take over this comprehensive civil action, and in the foreseeable future – if qualified counsel will not step forward to voluntarily take this case over – Lambrix will move the court for appointment of counsel. The success of this civil action could effect almost every death sentenced prisoner in the country by challenging the constitutionally of politically motivated interference and obstruction of death sentenced prisoners ability to seek fair and meaningful post conviction review, and establishing legal precedent to hold those who do corrupt the process itself personally responsible.

Why is this important? Because if we are truly committed to protecting against the inevitable execution of innocent men and women, then we must first ensure that anyone convicted and condemned to death has a reasonable opportunity to pursue fair and meaningful post conviction review. Without these safeguards, there is absolutely no question that innocent men and women will be put to death by execution. Again this comprehensive civil action, although long, is definitely worth reading in its entirety.

Michael Lambrix maintains and writes blog articles on two blog sites… check ‘em out.
www.doinglifeondeathrow.blogspot.com
www.deathrowjournals.blogspot.com