Rallies supporting and criticizing Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala happened in Tallahassee and Orlando Thursday.

  • Rallies for, against Aramis Ayala held Thursday
  • "Ride for Aramis" brought activists to Tallahassee
  • Small rally in Orlando protesting Ayala

Hundreds of activists rallied at the Florida Capitol Thursday for Ayala, who was removed from a high-profile murder case by Gov. Rick Scott this month because of her refusal to seek the death penalty.

The activists traveled to Tallahassee from every corner of the state as part of a coordinated "Ride for Aramis."

With some Republican lawmakers calling on Scott to suspend the independently-elected prosecutor from her office, her defenders decided the time had come to take their message directly to the state's halls of power.

"When you are an elected official and we go to the polls, we demonstrate our power, and then you, as the governor, decide to take the power away from the people, we will not stand for that!" proclaimed T.J. Legacy-Cole, a community organizer and founder of Orlando Black Voice.

The rally, which also featured NAACP chapter presidents, church pastors and a handful of Democratic state senators, was a vocal indictment of the governor. Ayala's decision to forego the death penalty in the Markeith Loyd murder case falls within her prosecutorial discretion, the activists said, adding that Scott's action may have been unconstitutional.

The death penalty has been consuming Tallahassee's agenda lately, with the state's death penalty sentencing scheme being twice invalidated by the courts. The Republican-controlled legislature this month passed a reform measure designed to comply with the rulings, only to see the debate over capital punishment reignited with Ayala's decision.

"In any death cases coming forward, she said that she will not even consider trying them, and it goes against the spirit of the law that we set forward -- that's why we have a death penalty in Florida," Rep. Bob Cortes (R-Altamonte Springs) told reporters recently.

Cortes is leading the effort to convince Scott to suspend Ayala, a move the activists suggested would amount to a racially-inspired punishment of the prosecutor, who is black.

"We as African-Americans (should) start pooling our resources together and start supporting our elected officials so that we don't have to have a state attorney who's trying to make history, who's trying to do her job, and then they're trying to give an asterisk by her accomplishment," Legacy-Cole said. "How many African-Americans have to deal with that?"

In Orlando, family members of murder victims came out in support of the death penalty Thursday.

They held a rally outside the Orange County Courthouse to oppose the group in Tallahassee. 

Among them was Rafael Zaldivar, father of Alex Zaldivar. Alex was murdered, and his killer is currently on death row.

"Alex was a state witness, the other children were state witnesses," Rafael Zaldivar said. "The state witness is like a police officer. They are putting their lives on the line for the community and he paid with his life. It's no difference."

"For [Ayala] to make a blanket statement to no longer seek the death penalty is a slap in the face to survivors of homicide and their loved ones everywhere," said Steve Zellers, a former state attorney's office witness coordinator.

They're are asking Governor Scott to suspend or begin the process of removing State Attorney Ayala from office.