It has only been a few days since William H Burgess III declared he is running for Circuit Court Judge in Florida for 2012. To be honest, I don't know much about him or how such campaigns are run. Such campaigns seem to have less of the partisan venom of other elected officials. There was one thing that jumped out at me though: He's a former officer in Special Forces. He has also served in Military Intelligence and the Infantry. That's not his main qualification for the job, but it's the one that jumped out at me.
And I asked a friend to verify it. Turns out he was one of the first to become an SF branched officer. In earlier times, officers of other branches were simply assigned to Special Forces, and it was considered a career killer. Those that volunteered for the assignment did so because they believed enough in the mission that they were willing to forego career advancement to be the best.
Mr Burgess runs a legal blog where he discusses legal issues and he's on the WOTN friends list on Facebook which is how I learned about his bid for judgeship. His political affilation is Non-Partisan. (Because of the nature of our Facebook page, I accept nearly all friend requests. It does not imply I know the person or agree with their positions, but that I'm happy that citizens want to stay informed on the events of the War On Terror. So, I was playing catch-up on this.)
For the legal scholars out there, this is one to watch. For the central Florida residents out there, this is a chance to learn more about one of the candidates for Florida Judgeship. For the readers that are interested in such things, this may be a way to influence the path of the our courts. For me, this will likely be a learning experience in judicial campaigns.
From his information page on Facebook:
William H. Burgess, III, is a trial attorney and prosecutor for the State of Florida. Mr. Burgess is Board Certified in Criminal Trial Law and his current bar memberships include The Florida Bar and the United States Middle District of Florida. He is a past member of The Florida Bar’s Judicial Administration and Evaluation Committee and the Standing Committee on Professionalism and the Judicial Administration, Selection and Tenure Committee.
Mr. Burgess has also served as an adjunct professor at St. Petersburg College, lecturing on the law to future police officers. He lectures at the Criminal Law Certification Review for the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and has lectured on sentencing, evidence, professionalism, trial practice, and other criminal law-related topics for the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, the Florida Public Defender Association, the Broward County Bar Association, the St. Petersburg Bar Association, the Pinellas County Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the judges of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, and has also taught trial advocacy as an adjunct professor at Stetson Law School.
Mr. Burgess received his J.D. from Washington College of Law, The American University; his M.P.A. from Clark University; and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts.
He served in the U.S. Army from 1976 to 1995, in Infantry, Military Intelligence, and, for most of his career, Special Forces, including wartime command experience in the Persian Gulf. He resides in Seminole, Florida.
Bill Burgess is on Linked In, Twitter
Bill Burgess for Judge Campaign Site
Bill Burgess on YouTube
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