No. 24-324

Christina Paylan v. Florida

Lower Court: Florida
Docketed: 2024-09-20
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Response Waived
Tags: appellate-procedure constitutional-infirmity due-process fair-trial judicial-disqualification judicial-ethics
Latest Conference: 2024-10-18
Question Presented (from Petition)

This petition exposes the vacuum in Florida's appellate judicial disqualification mechanism that creates a constitutional infirmity for all Floridians.

Every state in the nation, but Florida has rules, statutes or adopted code of judicial conduct that is equal to force of law, governing disqualification of appellate court judges.

Is Florida's arbitrary, rudderless standard for disqualification of appellate judges a violation of due process where Florida State Supreme Court declined to disqualify an appellate judge relying on procedural grounds in spite of the fact that the appellate judge parachuted back into the same criminal case after revoking his own previous disqualification and doing so without any written explanation?

In the absence of any rule or statute, is it also violation of due process for Florida Supreme Court to decline disqualification of another appellate judge on the same panel relying on procedural grounds, in light of the substantive grounds stemming from remarks by this judge at oral argument, that include but are not limited to the remark that that the party is a "perjurer" where the appellate record is void of any evidence of conviction or even an allegation of perjury?

Under federal law, are Floridians deprived of their right to fair trial in criminal cases because Florida is the only state in the nation to has no rules or statutes governing the disqualification of appellate judges?

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether Florida's lack of rules governing appellate judicial disqualification violates due process rights of litigants

Docket Entries

2024-10-21
Petition DENIED.
2024-10-02
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/18/2024.
2024-09-30
Waiver of right of respondent Florida to respond filed.
2024-08-25

Attorneys

Christina Paylan
Christina Paylan — Petitioner
Florida
Marilyn Frances MuirOffice of the Attorney General, State of Florida, Respondent