JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Harry Shorstein, who spent 17 years as the top prosecutor for Jacksonville and its neighboring counties, has died. He was 86.
The 4th Judicial Circuit announced his passing in a public post, remembering him as a dedicated public servant and a Marine who earned combat honors in Vietnam before coming home to work for his community. He died on Oct. 23.
Shorstein was a Jacksonville native. A Robert E. Lee High School graduate, he earned both his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Florida. As a Marine captain in Vietnam, he received the Bronze Star Medal with Combat V, the Combat Action Ribbon and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.
He began his legal career on the defense side in the public defender’s office, moved to the prosecution in 1970 and later served a two-year stint as the city’s chief lawyer. In 1991, Gov. Lawton Chiles appointed him state attorney for the circuit that covers Duval, Clay and Nassau counties, filling out the term of Ed Austin after Austin left to run for mayor.
Voters kept him in the job through five terms. Over that stretch his office handled a string of cases that drew national attention, including the 1998 bat killing of an 8-year-old girl by a 14-year-old neighbor, a 1991 hate-crime case against a white supremacist in the death of a Black Navy sailor, and the 2001 murder conviction of a Panhandle medical examiner in his wife’s death.
Shorstein also built a juvenile justice program that paired early intervention and rehabilitation for young offenders with jail time for violent and repeat ones. He announced in 2007 that he would not seek another term, left office in 2008 and returned to private practice alongside his youngest son, Paul.
Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said Shorstein held firm to justice while still believing people deserved second chances, a belief she tied to his long work with at-risk young people.
