〇n August 4, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) pause Andrew Warren was elected Chief Prosecutor of Hillsborough County, Tampa. Warren state attorneys have pledged not to prosecute people who seek or provide abortions despite new Florida law. 15 weeks abortion banHe promised the same about gender-affirming care for transgender youth. try to ban.
“Taking a position that you have a veto over state law is untenable.” DeSantis said, accused Warren of “negligence of duty”. Warren replied that the governor was “trying to overthrow democracy here in Hillsborough County.”
Warren, A Democrat, not a Radical.when he Ran When Mark Orr became a state attorney in 2016, he challenged some of Orr’s policies. A Republican, Over has a typical Southern Conservative view of the death penalty. For example, he said: By finances and chances of winning.
Warren thought it went too far.But he adamantly never promised No seek the death penalty.Unlike Orlando’s contemporary state attorney, Aramis Ayala, he simply rarely asked for it.
when ayala said no more death penaltyat least not when she was a state attorney, but Florida Republicans saw it as a call to war. strippedThere was even talk of her being fired head-on under an archaic provision in the state (but not federal) constitution.
This gives abortion a unique place in right-wing politics.
But while she wasn’t, Warren have Removed due to announcing his policy after the recent deprecation Law vs Wade.
This gives abortion a unique place in right-wing politics. State Attorney Ayala’s anti-death sentence created a tremendous storm, much of it uproar. Despite her outrage, she was allowed to complete her term. families of many murder victims under her jurisdiction.she decided Supposedly because of the Republican leadership’s actions, but she wasn’t coercion go out.
punish those who terminate pregnancies Any time after 15 weeks Clearly more important to Republican leaders than the flawed notion of “getting justice” for murder victims and their families through executions.Even though most Americans disapproval of egg Abolition involving more than half of “moderate” Republicans.
Of course, DeSantis now Measurement I have clear motives for running for president in 2024 and making a high-profile appeal to Republican constituencies.
illuminate this too The fault line between pro-execution Republicans (they exist!) and other criminal justice reformers. When Derek Cohen headed the prominent right-leaning criminal justice reform nonprofit Right on Crime, he explained why. He and his ilk were not involved in the election of prosecutors.
“It’s good to have reform-minded prosecutors,” he said. Said“But what risks prosecution is getting a system in which the culture wars play out in the realm of prosecutorial discretion itself.”
Compare that to Governor Rick DeSantis Saidjustifying his decision to remove Warren, saying, “Our government is a government of law, not a government of men.”
These statements can match each other. In both cases, the role of locally elected prosecutors is Use their discretion to maximize public safety, but act as a thoughtless tool of the legislature.
DeSantis running for governor As partner But it contextualized Warren’s decision as a “rule of law” issue, accusing Warren himself of failing to meet his obligations. Because of the need to work with key Republicans, people like Cohen have to give the green light to injustice they nominally oppose.
Republican leaders in other states want to replicate DeSantis’ ‘success’ New legislation may be created to make it easier for Democrats to remove the DA.
Ominously, DeSantis’ display in Republican power politics could spell the beginning of the end of years of work to make a legion of elected Southern prosecutors a little less barbaric.
Conservative state Democratic DA’s have always been an act of balancing between their beliefs, local voters, and the state government’s Republican overlords. Warren has been doing so for years.
But Warren is an elected official, a Democrat, and a registered Democrat basically needs a commitment to support a choice from any Democratic candidate. For example, in the U.S. House of Representatives, anti-abortion DemocratHere, acting like nearly all Democrats do is clearly a fireable crime.
In Florida this is quirks of the state constitution This allows the governor to remove locally elected law enforcement officers who are deemed to be derelict in their duties. But Republican leaders in other states they control looking for a way to the ax All the nasty “progressive prosecutors”.Hoping to replicate DeSantis’ “success” in weaponizing abortion, they New legislation may be created to make it easier for Democrats to remove the DA.
In front of the Dobbs This decision brought the criminalization of abortion back into the United States, and the Southern progressive DA had substantial power to reduce incarceration in local jurisdictions. Now their job is “Transforming the courtroom into a symbolic arena of resistance, using the law as a kind of memory work’ In the short term, it does little to minimize harm to real people. Victims of DeSantis’ decision include those seeking abortion and gender-affirming care in Hillsborough County, as well as many others.
Photo by DeSantis by Gage Skidmore via Flickr/Creative Commons 2.0
