Allison DeFoor II
Lawyer, Politician, Judge, Sheriff, Historian, and most recently Jeb Bush’s "Everglades Czar"

"Lessons from the Conch Republic: Florida’s Environment and Where It’s Going: A Conversation with J. Allison DeFoor II"

Not yet fifty years old, Allison DeFoor has already enjoyed a long and productive career in law, law enforcement, politics, environmental affairs, and private industry. DeFoor holds a B.A. in Geography and an M.A. in Criminology from USF. After earning a law degree from Stetson University in 1978, DeFoor began a long and productive legal career in the Florida Keys, serving as Assistant Public Defender and Assistant State’s Attorney and Director of the Narcotics Task Force. In 1982 at the age of 28 he was elected Judge of the Monroe County Court, serving until 1987. In 1988 DeFoor was elected Sheriff of Monroe County, serving until 1990 when he resigned to accept Gov. Bob Martinez’s offer to run as lieutenant governor. In the 1990s De Foor practiced law, was active in state and national Republican affairs, and served on numerous profit and non-profit boards of directors. DeFoor has written and lectured on environmental, historical, legal, and governmental subjects. He as taught at many universities including Yale University, University of Miami Law School, and Florida A & M University. Active in the Florida Episcopal Church, DeFoor earned a doctorate in Sacred Theology from South Florida Center for Theological Studies in 1999. That same year he became Gov. Jeb Bush’s Everglades Policy Coordinator. That work was successfully concluded this past legislative session with the passage of the Everglades Restoration Bill. DeFoor resides with his wife and three children in Wakulla, Florida.  

James J. Fyfe
Professor of Criminal Justice Temple University

"Police in the Defendant’s Seat: Police Authority and Accountability"

One of America’s leading criminal justice scholars, James J. Fyfe served for sixteen years with the New York City police Department, earning seven citations while serving as a patrolman in Brooklyn, Times Square, and Queens. Receiving a Ph.D. degree in criminal justice from the State University of New York at Albany in 1978, Fyfe’s academic career has taken him to The American University and Temple University, where he serves as professor of criminal justice and senior public policy research fellow. Fyfe also directs the Crime and Justice Research Institute in Philadelphia.

The author of seven books and over 75 articles and book chapters, Fyfe has also contributed more than 20 articles to the Atlanta Constitution, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and other newspapers. He has commented on police and criminal justice matters in hundreds of national and local media appearances. Formerly the editor of Justice Quarterly, Fyfe now serves on the editorial boards of Criminal Law Bulletin, Journal of Criminal Justice Education, and Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency.

Fyfe has also been as an expert witness in numerous landmark court cases, including the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings in Milwaukee, the Los Angeles police beating of Rodney King, the Philadelphia police MOVE bombing, and the FBI siege in Waco.

James M. Denham
Professor of History, Florida Southern College

Canter Brown, Jr.
Historian in Residence, Florida Supreme Court Historical Society

"Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives: Florida Reminiscences of George Gillett Keen and Sarah Pamela Williams" (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000) book talk and signing.

James M. Denham is Professor of History at Florida Southern College. A specialist in Southern and Florida history Denham joined the FSC faculty in 1991 after teaching at Limestone College, Georgia Southern University, and Florida State University where earned his Ph.D. in 1988. His articles and reviews appeared in many popular and scholarly journals. In addition to Cracker Times, he is the author of "A Rogue’s Paradise": Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Florida, 1821-1861, which will also be available at the program.

Canter Brown, Jr. is the author of many works on Florida and southern history, including two award-winning titles, Florida’s Peace River Frontier and Ossian Bingley Hart: Florida’s Loyalist Reconstruction Governor. He holds a J.D. and Ph.D. in U. S. History from Florida State University. He has taught in the history and political science departments at Florida A & M University and is a native of Fort Meade, Florida.

January 18, 2000

Michael L. Radelet
Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, University of Florida

"The Death Penalty in Florida: Some Problems and Surprises"

A native of South Bend, Indiana, Michael L. Radelet received his Ph.D. degree from Purdue University in 1977. After postdoctoral studies at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Wisconsin, Radelet joined the Sociology faculty at the University of Florida in 1979. An internationally recognized scholar of various aspects of the death penalty, Professor Radelet has written many books and dozens of articles on the subject. Radelet’s most important work has examined miscarriages of justice in capital cases and the ongoing problems of racial bias in the administration of the death penalty in Florida. He has also studied such issues as public opinion, mental health questions surrounding capital punishment, and families of both homicide victims and of death row inmates.

Professor Radelet has testified in some 60 death penalty cases around the U. S., and he has worked with most the last 46 men and women executed in Florida.

Of Professor Radelet’s six books, he is perhaps best known for his work, In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases (Boston, 1992), written with Hugo Adam Bedau, which will be available at his program.

Ben Green
Writer, Journalist

"Florida’s Harry T. Moore: America’s First Civil Rights Martyr."

A Florida native, Green holds degrees from Brandeis University and Florida State University. A freelance writer and journalist on the FSU faculty, Green’s first book was the Finest Kind, the story of the Florida Gulf Coast fishing village of Cortez, and its struggle to preserve its way of life in the face of on-rushing development and drug smuggling. Green’s next book was the Soldier of Fortune Murders, which sold over 100,000 copies and served as the basis for the 1994 CBS miniseries, "When Love Kills."

Green’s latest work, and the subject of his program, is the highly acclaimed book, Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T. Moore, America’s Fist Civil Rights Martyr (New York, 1999). The book chronicles the life of Harry T. Moore, Florida field secretary of the NAACP in the 1940s, who was blown up in his house on Christmas Day 1951. Moore and his wife Harriet’s death sparked unprecedented national and international protests, even becoming fodder for Cold War propaganda.

Before His Time has generated significant national attention, with front page stories in the Miami Herald, St. Petersburg Times, and Palm Beach Post; reviews in the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and numerous other papers. Moore’s story will also be the subject of an upcoming PBS documentary, narrated by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Green was the primary consultant for the program.

Before his Time Green’s other works with be available at his program.

David J. Coles
Assistant Professor of History, Longwood College

"The Smallest Tadpole: Florida in the American Civil War"

David Coles is a native of Long Island, New York, who grew up in Ft. Myers, Florida. After service in the U. S Army, he attended Florida State University, earning a bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree in history. Dr. Coles was formerly supervisor of the Florida State Archives and is currently a Assistant Professor of history at Longwood College in Farmville, Virginia.

One of Florida’s leading Civil War historians, Dr. Coles dissertation was a study of the war in Florida. A leading authority on the Battle of Olustee and other military operations in Florida, Coles’s articles and reviews have appeared in the Florida Historical Quarterly, Civil War History, Civil War Times Illustrated, and numerous other journals. His seminal article on Black troops in Florida appeared in Florida’s Heritage of Diversity (available at this program).

He was co-compiler of the six volume Biographical Rosters of Florida’s Confederate and Union Soldiers in the Civil War, 1861-1865 and associate editor of the new Encyclopedia of the American Civil War. He is currently co-authoring a biography of the Confederate cavalry commander John J. Dickison.