April 10,2013

Dear Sis~

The execution of Larry Mann occurred this evening as scheduled, making it the sixth execution under Gov Scott (it would be eighth, but two guys won stays of execution from the Federal courts and their cases have yet to be resolved). Meanwhile, the Evans Case is pending before the US Supreme Court, waiting to see if that court will grant certiorari review of the Ring v Arizona issue, which is the claim presented in Evans.  The issue is whether Ring applies to Florida or, put another way, whether Florida's death penalty statue is unconstitutional pursuant to Ring.  We've been waiting for 10 years for the US Supreme Court to address this claim and the Evans case presents the best opportunity yet given that, in Evans, a federal judge answered that question in the affirmative, ruling Florida's capital sentencing statute unconstitutional under the dictates of Ring.  Arizona's death penalty statute is virtually identical to Florida's, almost word for word, and it's hard to imagine how the US Supreme Court could distinguish them if they accept the case.  If the court agrees to take the case I fully expect them to strike down important aspects of Florida's capital statutory scheme, just as they did in Ring.  And while the Supreme Court has previously held that Ring is not retroactive it will nonetheless have far-reaching ramifications for many of Florida's death row prisoners...

I was saddened to see that Annette Funicello died. Remember how you and I, at age 6 or 7, used to watch her on the Mickey Mouse Club, on our old black and white TV, back in the early 60's?  We used to sing along to their song at the close of each episode, remember?  Seeing her old black & white photo on the news, wearing her Mickey Mouse T-shirt and Mickey Mouse ears, really pulled me down the rabbit hole of nostalgia, flooding me with pleasant childhood memories, and there are way too few of those in my memory bank.  Those were real days of innocence...

Speaking of old memories, I see someone has made a new movie called Kon-Tiki, based upon Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 sailing adventure, where he and about 5 other guys built a balsa wood raft in Peru and successfully sailed 4,500 miles across the Pacific (fighting sharks and storms) in order to prove his controversial theory that the Polynesian Islands were (or at least could have been) populated by ancient sailors from South America.  As a kid I devoured his book, also called Kon-Tiki (which was the name of the raft), and of course I was lost in the grand adventure of it all; I dreamed of running off to South America, or some other exotic locale, to strike out and find my own excitement, to scratch that itch I always had, that ineffable urge to challenge boundaries and the status quo...

That's enough rambling for now, Sis.  I'll write more soon.

Love, 
  Bill