{"id":360499,"date":"2026-08-02T05:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/360499\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T05:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:01:08","slug":"florida-weekly-roundup-judicial-wordsmithing-northescambia-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/360499\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Weekly Roundup: Judicial Wordsmithing : NorthEscambia.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As the primary draws closer without any gubernatorial candidates tossed from the ballot, a far-reaching property tax cut proposal set to go before voters later this year had a day in court this week.<\/p>\n

Now the wait is on for Leon County Judge David Frank to decide whether to toss a series of lawsuits or order the state\u2019s attorney general to rewrite what voters will read.<\/p>\n

BALLOT ADVOCACY<\/p>\n

Three groups of plaintiffs, including former local government elected officials and a former Republican legislator, contend the title and ballot summary for Amendment 3, approved by the GOP-led Legislature in June, uses \u201cemotional and political rhetoric\u201d designed to mislead voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there is anybody who can say when this amendment was drafted that it\u2019s not partial and it\u2019s not advocacy,\u201d said former Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican, who brought one of the lawsuits against the property tax cut proposal. \u201cAll we are asking the court to do is follow the law and follow what the constitution lays out when it relates to advocacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opponents argue the measure could cost cities and counties as much as $12 billion annually and shift the tax burdens to renters and businesses, which isn\u2019t reflected in the ballot language that is under the amendment\u2019s title of \u201cSave Our Homes From Excessive Property Taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representing one of the opposition groups, attorney Jamie Cole told Frank the wording voters see \u201chas to be fair and it has to be accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should not be political rhetoric, it should not be emotional language,\u201d Cole said.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Gibson, an attorney representing the state, said the onus was on the plaintiffs to prove the ballot summary was defective. Also, the measure\u2019s title wasn\u2019t misleading because it spells out the danger to homesteads: excessive taxes.<\/p>\n

He also downplayed arguments that the measure would essentially give the Legislature veto power over how local property taxes are spent because it restricts such spending to infrastructure, education, public safety and other major needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ballot title and summary does not need to explain unknowns or hypothetical consequences,\u201d Gibson said.<\/p>\n

FISHBACK STAYS<\/p>\n

Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback remains on the primary ballot.<\/p>\n

Judge Frank ruled Monday that Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, another GOP candidate for the governor\u2019s office, didn\u2019t prove Fishback lived outside the state within the last seven years.<\/p>\n

Collins alleged Fishback voted in Washington D.C. in 2020 and established a homestead there when he bought an apartment in 2021, making him ineligible due to the state\u2019s seven-year residency requirement for the office.<\/p>\n

With Fishback testifying that he never gave up his Florida residency and voted in D.C. to support President Donald Trump, Frank determined the burden of proof was on Collins to show Fishback abandoned his residence in Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a victory for our campaign. It\u2019s a victory for the constitution and for every Floridian who believes elections should be decided by voters, not politicians trying to rig the system,\u201d Fishback stated after the ruling was released.<\/p>\n

DOUBLE EXECUTION<\/p>\n

Florida completed a rare day-night execution Tuesday, putting Dominick Anthony Occhicone to death about five hours after James Aren Duckett was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

After a flurry of emergency applications and petitions were turned down the past few days at the federal level, including the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, Occhicone, 80, became the oldest inmate executed by the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty described the twin executions as an \u201cunprecedented escalation\u201d of the state\u2019s use of the death penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are two profoundly different cases, but they point to the same troubling reality: Florida continues to expand the use of capital punishment, despite mounting evidence that it is not what Floridians want,\u201d said Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.<\/p>\n

Occhicone and Duckett were put to death by lethal injection at Florida State Prison, bringing the number of inmates executed this year to 12.<\/p>\n

DeSantis signed his 14th death warrant of the year Thursday, for Harold Gene Lucas to be executed Sept. 1. Lucas received the death sentence for the murder of his 16-year-old former girlfriend in Bonita Springs almost 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, DeSantis said he didn\u2019t \u201ctake joy\u201d in presiding over the double execution or take \u201cpride\u201d in signing the warrants even though it will be \u201cmore than any administration in the history of the state.\u201d But DeSantis said capital punishment is needed to \u201cbring justice,\u201d as \u201csome of the victims\u2019 families have been waiting a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do owe it to them to do it,\u201d DeSantis said Tuesday night at the Florida Sheriffs Association Summer Conference at Trump National Doral.<\/p>\n

STORY OF THE WEEK:<\/p>\n

Opponents of a Florida property tax-cutting ballot measure, Amendment 3, get their day in court, but must wait on a ruling.<\/p>\n

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou shouldn\u2019t be going for 20 years. You should be able to try and maybe appeal, but then at some point, we\u2019ve got to get cracking here.\u201d \u2014 Gov. Ron DeSantis on the death sentence appeal process while at the Florida Sheriffs Association Summer Conference on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the primary draws closer without any gubernatorial candidates tossed from the ballot, a far-reaching property tax cut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-360499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360499","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=360499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}