Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri speaking at a state panel
TALLAHASSEE - A prominent sheriff and a Miami police oversight panel are backing a challenge to an appeals-court ruling that could help shield the identities of law-enforcement officers involved in use-of-force incidents.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri and the Miami Civilian Investigative Panel this week said they plan to file friend-of-the-court briefs at the Florida Supreme Court in a dispute about whether a 2018 constitutional amendment known as “Marsy’s Law” can prevent the release of officers’ names.
Marsy’s Law bolstered victims’ rights, and a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled last month that privacy protections in the constitutional amendment can apply to two Tallahassee police officers. Those officers argued they were victims because they were threatened in incidents that resulted in use of force.
Sheriff, oversight panel dispute Marsy s Law ruling - South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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Pinellas Sheriff Gualtieri backs challenge to Marsyâs Law ruling
An appeals court ruling could help shield the identities of law enforcement officers who kill people. Gualtieri says the names should be public.
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Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, shown in this photo from a crime scene in 2020, opposes shielding the names of officers involved in use-of-force incidents from the public. [ DIRK SHADD | Times ]
By Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
Published 2 hours ago
Updated 2 hours ago
TALLAHASSEE - A prominent sheriff and a Miami police oversight panel are backing a challenge to an appeals-court ruling that could help shield the identities of law-enforcement officers involved in use-of-force incidents.
A document filed Wednesday by Gualtieri’s attorneys said a police officer “who shoots and kills another is not a ‘victim’ of that shooting and cannot invoke Marsy’s Law to shroud his shooting in secrecy.”
Along with being sheriff of one of the state’s largest counties, Gualtieri has led a commission that probed the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County and is a past president of the Florida Sheriffs Association.
“That a use of force is justified does not shield the identity of the person using it from public view,” Gualtieri’s attorneys wrote in the document. “Here, the appeals court misconstrued the plain text of Marsy’s Law by expanding it to suppress the identity of a police officer who shot and killed another person.”
Florida Supreme Court
A legal battle about whether a 2018 constitutional amendment known as “Marsy’s Law” can shield the identities of police officers went to the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The city of Tallahassee filed a notice that is a first step in asking the Supreme Court to decide whether the constitutional amendment, which is designed to bolster crime victims’ rights, can apply to police officers who were threatened in use-of-force incidents.
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal last month sided with two Tallahassee police officers, who argued that, as victims, they were entitled to privacy protections included in Marsy’s Law.
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