Group Backs Challenge to Marsy’s Law
By News Service of Florida Staff Published: May. 17, 2021
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (News Service of Florida) - First Amendment and journalism groups want to weigh in if the Florida Supreme Court takes up a case that could help shield the identities of law-enforcement officers involved in use-of-force incidents.
The Joseph L. Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Society of Professional Journalists filed a notice Friday of their intent to submit a friend-of-the-court brief if the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, which involves application of a 2018 constitutional amendment known as “Marsy’s Law.”
The constitutional amendment bolstered victims’ rights, and a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled last month that privacy protections in Marsy’s Law can apply to two Tallahassee police officers. Those officers argued they were victims because they were threatened in incidents that resulted in use of force.
One of the incidents drew national attention, as an officer identified in court documents as “John Doe 2” shot a Black transgender man, Natosha “Tony” McDade, in May 2020. Because the police officer was the victim of an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the incident, he contends he had the right under Marsy’s Law to prevent release of his name.
