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ST. LUCIE WEST • TRADITION
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 4/ISSUE 11
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Lake Charles residents push for recall election
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2016
Musically benefitting Hidden Tree Houses guitarist Jason Clements of St. Lucie West performed with his bandmates during the second annual Bryan Jackson Music Festival at the St. Lucie County Fairgrounds Saturday, Jan. 9. See page A3 for the story and more photos.
Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
ST. LUCIE WEST — Tensions are high at Lake Charles, and maybe other local communities. Lake Charles resident Michael Miner is spearheading an attempt at recalling and replacing three members of the community’s executive board. Recall advocates had a meeting about it on Saturday, Jan. 9, at Sunrise Community Church. In addition to Lake Charles residents, folks from the Cascades at St. Lucie West, and perhaps other communities, attended. “Where you guys are, we’re going,” a speaker identifying himself as a Cascades resident said at the meeting. Miner is the homeowners’ representative in the Lake Charles recall attempt. Florida law spells out how homeowner association members can initiate recall elections. Recall advocates simply have to get a majority of association members to agree to one. They don’t have to give
See RECALL page A6
Mitch Kloorfain chief photographer
Death penalty for Tisdale still unclear Staff Reports
info@YourVoiceWeekly.com
TREASURE COAST — A potential death sentence for Eriese Tisdale, the man convicted of killing St. Lucie County Sheriff Sgt. Gary Morales in 2013, was complicated this week by a U.S. Supreme Court move to declare Florida’s death penalty law unconstitutional. Though it was unclear whether Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn was planning to sentence Tisdale to
death or life in prison for murdering the 35-year-old veteran officer during a traffic stop in Fort Pierce, the sentencing hearing had been set for the morning of Jan. 15. However, a ruling Tuesday in a case out of Escambia County, the nation’s highest court decided Florida’s system for sentencing people to death is unconstitutional because it gives too much power to judges — and not enough to juries — to decide capital sentences. The 8-1 ruling said Florida’s sentencing procedure is flawed
because juries play only an advisory role in recommending death while the judge can reach a different decision. Florida, Alabama and Maryland are the only states that do not require a unanimous jury verdict when sentencing someone to death. In the Escambia County case, the jury voted 7-5 in favor of death, but a judge imposed the sentence. Florida’s solicitor general argued that the system was
See DEATH page A9
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