Florida Prosecutor Opposed to Death Penalty Receives Racist Threats
Authorities in Florida are attempting to determine the source of racist letters—one containing a noose—mailed to a state prosecutor who announced her opposition to the death penalty while handling a high-profile cop-killing case.
Aramis Ayala, Florida’s first African American state attorney, received the racist threats in the mail in late March after she announced she would not seek the death penalty against any defendant, including accused cop-killer Markeith Loyd, according to various media reports.
Loyd, 41, whose courtroom statements suggest he’s a sovereign citizen, is charged with first-degree murder in the Jan. 9 death of Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton who was trying to arrest him for killing his pregnant girlfriend in December.
When Ayala announced she wouldn’t pursue the death penalty against Loyd, Florida Gov. Rick Scott removed her from prosecuting the Loyd case and 22 other first-degree murder cases, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
The Republican governor said he took the unusual action because the Orange-Osceola State Attorney “won't fight for justice.” Ayala subsequently filed state and federal lawsuits challenging his decision removing the cases from her office.
As that controversy boiled, the racist threats began, Ayala has said in media interviews.
“I have gotten a lot of pushback,” Ayala told Orlando radio station WHPB. “I received a noose that was mailed to my office. I received several types of derogatory and racist remarks to me, personally and professionally.”
The first threatening letter arrived at her office on March 20, the Orlando Weekly reported. It contained a statement that said: “SOONER OR LATER A N----- WILL BE A N-----.”
“The envelope also contained three white business cards with the words ‘You are an Honorary Member of S.P.O.N.G.E.’ on one side and ‘Society for the Prevention of N------ Getting Everything’ on the other side,” the weekly newspaper reported.
Another mailing sent to Ayala’s office contained a small-scale noose made of heavy twine.
The elected prosecutor said she “believes the hangman’s noose was meant as a threat to her as a public official” and that the mailings are hate crimes, the Orlando newspaper reported.
Sheriff detectives and U.S. Postal Service inspectors are attempting to determine the source of the mailings, but there have been no arrests, the newspaper reported.
Florida radio station WFSU reported that more than 40 former judges and prosecutors are supporting Ayala in her lawsuit against the Florida governor, describing the legal challenge as a “de facto political battle over the death penalty.”
