Today in “Stories from Florida,” we have a retired cop who went above and beyond to protect the identity of a tipster and a shocking fact about the justice system in the Sunshine State that proves racism is alive and well.
Above The Call Of Duty:
Retired Police Chief Richard Masten knows the importance of keeping your sources safe. So much so that the now-director of the Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers decided to go above and beyond to keep the identity of an anonymous tipster, well, anonymous.
Masten ate a piece of paper with the tipster’s name on it after a judge demanded the document. He tore the paper into strips before shoving it into his mouth and chewed them with his mouth open as a television crew watched.
Judge Victoria Brennan charged Masten with contempt of court and fined him $500.
He now faces up to two weeks in jail. No word on what he used to wash the dry strips of paper down. But dare we say we kind of like this guy?
Read about Masten’s stunt here.
The Cold, Hard Truth About Justice:
Here’s some sobering news.
The State of Florida has witnessed the execution of 84 people since the Supreme Court announced the modern death penalty regime in 1976. Thing is, zero of those are white people who have been sentenced for killing an African-American.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “no white person has ever been executed for killing an African-American” in the state of Florida. Period.
Nor is Florida particularly unusual in the racial impact of its death penalty. In Alabama, 6 percent of murders involve black defendants and white victims, but 60 percent of black death row inmates were convicted of murdering a white person. In Louisiana, a death sentence is 97 percent more likely in murder cases where the victim is white. Nationwide,only 20 white people have been executed since 1976 for killing a black person. By contrast, 269 black defendants were executed for killing someone who is white.
As ThinkProgress’ Nicole Flatow and Adam Peck explained in January, nearly all of the people executed in 2013 were convicted of killing at least one white person. Of the 39 executions that took place last year, 32 involved a white victim — and only one white person was executed for killing only a black man.
Here’s a helpful chart, provided by Think Progress:
You can read those shocking stats here.
VIDEO SOURCE: YouTube/Miami Herald
