Letter to the Editor
February 6, 2004

How could it possibly happen that Joseph P. Smith was allowed to kill Carlie Brucia? How did the "world's greatest judicial system" (as the attorneys often refer to it) allow Carlie, or anyone for that matter, to be sharing the same airspace with someone who has been arrested at least 13 times in Florida since 1993; including 17 months in state prison in 2001 and 2002 for heroin possession and prescription drug fraud, a cocaine possession charge eight days later, probation for aggravated battery in 1993 and heroin charges in 1999, and most relevant, he was arrested in 1997 in Manatee County on false imprisonment (kidnapping) charges, but was acquitted a year later.
In defending his constitutional rights to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness', those who enact our "world's greatest judicial system" not only dared to argue that as a non-threat he should be released, but after violating the probation that kept him out of prison, Circuit Judge Harry Rapkin declined to imprison him after his violation official recommended that he do so.
While "the world's greatest judicial system" was so busy defending Joseph P. Smith's 'pursuit of happiness', they apparently forgot about Carlie Brucia's 'life and liberty'.
Legally untrained as I am, if Joseph P. Smith gets released again, I am one of many thousands of “non-esquired” parents who would gladly visit him and put an end to this debacle.

- Simon Mirsky