{"id":200292,"date":"2026-03-21T10:14:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T10:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/200292\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T10:14:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T10:14:06","slug":"is-charging-an-mdma-seller-with-murder-in-miami-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/200292\/","title":{"rendered":"Is charging an MDMA seller with murder in Miami fair?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fans<\/p>\n

Fans dance during the third day of Ultra Music Festival on March 30, 2025, at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami.<\/p>\n

Alie Skowronski<\/p>\n

askowronski@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all made questionable decisions in our 20s \u2014 drinking too much or experimenting with drugs \u2014 and most of us lived to tell the story.<\/p>\n

In my 20s, I went to a music festival, Vans Warped Tour, and made some decisions that would\u2019ve made my parents shake their heads.<\/p>\n

But what happens when that decision becomes a fatal mistake? What happens when a 20-something buys drugs from someone at a music festival, takes them and dies? Who\u2019s responsible?<\/p>\n

In a Miami-Dade County case from last year\u2019s Ultra Music Festival, the person who sold the drugs may be considered responsible \u2014 and charged with first-degree murder.<\/p>\n

Charlene Forti<\/a> is accused of selling MDMA \u2014 commonly known as ecstasy or Molly \u2014 to 24-year-old Jenniha Le at Ultra. Le died. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle held a news conference this week to announce the charges.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a heartbreaking situation. But charging Forti with first-degree murder feels like a stretch and raises serious questions about whether this law should have been passed and what it\u2019s meant to address.<\/p>\n

Le was an adult. She made a decision to seek out and purchase drugs. It was a risk, and tragically, it cost her her life. In a free society, adults are allowed to make dangerous decisions. But personal responsibility has to play a role.<\/p>\n

None of this absolves Forti. If she did sell illegal drugs, that deserves punishment. But should she be facing first-degree murder charges?<\/p>\n

Traditionally, that charge has been reserved for premeditated acts. Florida law allows a person who supplies controlled substances that lead to another\u2019s death to be charged with first-degree murder; prosecutors don\u2019t have to prove Forti intended to kill anyone.<\/p>\n

Charging her may satisfy the law. But it does not resolve the broader question of whether this charge fits the conduct.<\/p>\n

At a press conference earlier this week, Rundle was explicit, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to prove that you intended that person to die when you gave them the pills.\u201d<\/p>\n

The law is clear, but clarity isn\u2019t the same as application.<\/p>\n

As Nova Southeastern University law professor Megan Chaney told WPLG Local 10 News,<\/a> this charge isn\u2019t usually applied in cases like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an odd thing that prosecutors would pursue the death penalty or a capital felony for somebody who did not intend to kill,\u201d she said, \u201cbut it is very rarely applied to the distribution of drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s possible that the Legislature was looking at all the fentanyl cases,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

That context shouldn\u2019t be overlooked.<\/p>\n

A law targeting large-scale traffickers pushing lethal amounts of fentanyl into communities may justify the most severe charges. Applying the same standard to what seems to be a small, one-on-one exchange at a festival is a different matter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also hard to ignore the timing. Ultra Music Festival comes back to Miami next week, and Rundle is sending a clear message: drugs won\u2019t be tolerated and consequences could be severe.<\/p>\n

The charge shouldn\u2019t be driven by the news cycle or calendar. Even in the most heartbreaking cases, that distinction is worth defending.<\/p>\n

Mary Anna Mancuso is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. Her email: mmancuso@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans dance during the third day of Ultra Music Festival on March 30, 2025, at Bayfront Park in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[92608,34137,92607,123,125,124,1064,92606],"class_list":["post-200292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-festival-drug-death","tag-first-degree-murder","tag-mdma-charges","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miami-dade","tag-ultra-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}