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Crist Makes 3rd Pick To Fill Florida Supreme Court Seats

News Channel 8 photo by CHIP OSOWSKI

The governor announced that he will appoint Judge Jorge Labarga to the Florida Supreme Court.

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By LINDSAY PETERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2009

Updated: 01/02/2009 01:21 pm

Gov. Charlie Crist announced his third appointment to the Florida Supreme Court this morning.

Judge Jorge Labarga will replace Justice Harry Lee Anstead when he retires this month when his current six-year term ends.

Labarga has been serving in the Circuit Court Criminal Division of the 15th Judicial Circuit in West Palm Beach since 2004. The Cuba-born judge graduated from the University of Florida in 1976 and has served as both an assistant public defender and an assistant state attorney in the 15th Judicial Circuit.

The late Gov. Lawton Chiles appointed Labarga to the circuit court in 1996. Labarga has heard cases in family, civil and criminal divisions since then.

Labarga was on an earlier list of Supreme Court candidates until Crist appointed him to the 4th District Court of Appeal in 2008 and said that took him out of Supreme Court contention. Crist then asked the Judicial Nominating Commission to submit more names to give him a more diverse pool to choose from. That sparked charges that he was politicizing the process.

In the end, Crist decided to choose Labarga anyway. The Supreme Court has one black justice and two female justices -- Chief Justice Peggy Quince is in both of those categories -- but no Hispanics, until now.

The panel interviewed 18 applicants in December.

"I chose him for his competency, integrity, fairness and compassion … as well as his diversity," Crist said during a news conference at 10 a.m. today in St. Petersburg.

The retirement of Justice Charles Wells in March will give the Republican governor an unprecedented opportunity to appoint a majority of the seven-member Supreme Court in his first term.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Tbo.com producer Beth Gaddis contributed to this report.

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