Despite a temporary stay, Duane Owen is unlikely to avoid his June 15 execution.
In March 1984, Owen murdered 14-year-old Karen Slattery while she babysat two girls in Delray Beach. Two months later, he killed Georgianna Worden in Boca Raton. The slayings panicked both cities because of their randomness. Boca Raton had no other murders that year. Delray Beach had just five.
On May 9, Gov. DeSantis signed a death warrant for Owen in the Worden case. This week, however, DeSantis paused that warrant and ordered a psychiatric evaluation of Owen. His lawyers assert an insanity defense based on Owen’s “feeling that he is a woman in the body of a man” and that with the killings he “was trying to fully become the woman he really was.” Owen, they say, doesn’t understand the penalty he faces.
Reading the new executive order, it seems clear that DeSantis considers his action merely perfunctory compliance with the law requiring an evaluation in such cases. As the order notes, Owen previously “chose to waive his mental capacity claims.” He tried an insanity defense in the Slattery killing. It failed. He has lost every other state and federal appeal.
According to the order, the examination took place on Tuesday. DeSantis wanted the results submitted by “close of business” Wednesday. Even if the three psychiatrists find that Owen “does not have the mental capacity” to understand that he could die, he will go to a treatment facility, the order states, “until such time as he has been restored to sanity and the sentence of death may be executed.”
Palm Beach County Public Defender Carey Haughwout represented Owen in the Slattery case. She spent two hours with him Tuesday at Florida State Prison. Haughwout remains convinced that Owen’s childhood—which included getting drunk with his alcoholic mother at age 8—explains his behavior and justifies a sentence of life without parole.
If the execution happens, Haughwout will be there as Owen’s legal representative. Ironically, Owen in 2006 sought an appeal based on what his attorneys claimed was Haughwout’s inadequate trial defense.
Owen was convicted twice in the Slattery killing—in 1985 and in 1999, after questions arose about his confession. He was found guilty of killing Worden in 1986. Of the 296 inmates on Death Row, only 31 have been there longer than Owen.
New candidate for Palm Beach School Board seat
A second candidate has filed paperwork to run for the Palm Beach County School Board seat that includes Boca Raton and West Boca. Frank Barbieri chose not to seek a new term.
Mike Letsky lives in the Mission Bay neighborhood near State Road 7 and Glades Road. Letsky told me Wednesday that his two children attend Loggers Run Middle School, with the older set to attend West Boca Raton High School next year.
The other announced candidate is former Boca Raton City Councilman Robert Weinroth. He got into the race after losing his 2022 bid for a second term on the county commission. Weinroth since has changed his affiliation from Democrat to Republican. School board races are non-partisan.
Letsky owns Futuregenrobotics, an engineering firm that offers a range of services, including artificial intelligence. Though he has been a community volunteer, Letsky has not served on school advisory councils or in any roles directly related to public education.
Though the race is non-partisan, politics became part of school board elections last year. Several candidates in Palm Beach County, all of whom lost, openly aligned themselves with controversial Republican legislation that emerged from Tallahassee over the last two years.
The most prominent is the parental rights bill that prohibited discussion of gender or sexual orientation from kindergarten through third grade. Supporters could cite no examples of this happening in any public school. Critics call it the “don’t say gay” law.
Letsky said he supports it, though he believed that the ban extended through eighth grade. In fact, the Board of Education recently extended it through high school.
Letsky also agrees with the decision to remove the income cap on public money for private school vouchers. Superintendent Mike Burke said the move will hurt the school district by allowing more students to attend private schools. Letsky said the district should figure out ways to make public schools more attractive to parents.
In addition, Letsky said he wants to raise average teacher pay to roughly $60,000. Doing so, he said, would require $135 million. He wants to shift that money from other parts of the operating budget. He did not offer details. Letsky also wants to address the shortage of school bus drivers.
Three board seats are up next year. Contested races will take place in the Aug. 20 statewide primary.
New candidate for open council seat in Boca
There also is a second announced candidate for what will be an open seat on the Boca Raton City Council in March.
Brian Stenberg has joined former Councilman Andy Thomson in filing paperwork for Seat D. Monica Mayotte must leave next year because of term limits. Stenberg, who serves on the housing authority board, lost to Mayotte in 2021.
The seat will come open next year because voters defeated a proposed charter change that would have lengthened terms to four years and kept Mayotte in office until 2025. Mayor Scott Singer championed the proposal. Stenberg spoke against it during council meetings and on social media.
Boca makes progress in city manager decision
The Boca Raton City Council made progress this week toward making official its choice as to who will be the city’s next chief executive officer.
Council members decided, after much back and forth, that the human resources department will gather information about the proper salary for Deputy City Manager George Brown while he serves as the designated successor to City Manager Leif Ahnell. Under the state’s mandatory retirement program, Ahnell must leave no later than March 31, 2024. City Attorney Diana Frieser will draft a contract for the council’s consideration.
Councilman Marc Wigder objected to Frieser’s initial proposal, saying that it shifted negotiating authority from the council. He wanted Mayor Scott Singer to handle negotiations with Brown. Frieser, though, said designating Singer to do so would require that all negotiations happen in public.
At one point, Wigder wondered if a “special counsel” might be necessary. Brown didn’t think so. The simpler approach, Fran Nachlas said, will keep all decisions with the council on what Frieser called “a proper contract” for Brown, whose duties will increase during the transition. This drawn-out debate became necessary when the council decided to appoint Brown so long before Ahnell’s departure.
Golf cart bill gets bipartisan support
Out of this year’s highly partisan legislative session, at least one issue got unanimous bipartisan support: golf carts.
House Bill 949, which the governor already has signed, requires that anyone driving a golf cart on a public street be at least 15 years old with a learner’s permit. Anyone 16 and older must have a driver’s license.
Previously, the minimum age was 14, which obviously meant that drivers didn’t need even a learner’s permit. But anyone in cities where there’s enough disposable income for families to afford golf carts knows that children younger than 14 have driven them.
Boca Raton is one of those cities. During Tuesday night’s meeting, Councilwoman Monica Mayotte praised the new law. Very young children driving carts, she said, is “a tragedy waiting to happen.” Mayotte urged all parents to comply, calling it “my personal public service announcement.”
