FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 4 (UPI) -- A Fort Lauderdale circuit judge has refused to release an inmate who has days to live, a report said Friday.
Jail officials, defense and prosecutors are shocked that Broward Judge Cheryl Aleman denied request to release Jean Felix into family care despite unanimous petitions.
Felix, 41, is in the final stages of AIDS, and isn't expected to live more than six weeks.
His jail sentence runs until Sept. 5, an 8-month term for violating probation in a drug possession case, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported.
"I was stunned by her total lack of compassion," said Felix's lawyer, Steven Michaelson, one of Broward's chief assistant public defenders.
Neil McKay, the head of health services at the jail, told the judge that Felix is in danger of dying sooner if he stays there.
Since joining the bench in January 2002, Aleman has been criticized twice by the Fourth District Court of Appeal for going too far.
