RECENT LEGISLATION: Florida Lawyers Challenge New Law Accelerating Executions

On June 26, lawyers in Florida filed a lawsuit challenging the 2013 Timely Justice Act, a law signed by Gov. Rick Scott earlier in June. The Act could accelerate executions by requiring the governor to sign a death warrant within 30 days of a Supreme Court review, provided the governor determines that the clemency process is complete. An execution must follow within 180 days. The lawsuit was filed by the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, a state agency that represents death row inmates during post-conviction proceedings, with more than 100 current death row inmates named as plaintiffs. The lawsuit claims that the new law is unconstitutional because it takes away the court’s powers and violates death penalty defendants’ rights to due process and equal protection. The suit stated, “The Act creates a rushed process for issuance of a likely flood of death warrants that will inundate the courts and abruptly cut off this Court’s exercise of judicial review in capital cases. If not addressed prior to its operation in practice, the process will have the unconstitutional and irreversible result of individuals being executed under a legislatively-determined judicial procedure in which violations of their constitutional rights go unresolved. Further, Florida history shows that diminished process can have tragic and irreversible consequences.” Florida leads the country in exonerations, with 24 inmates released from death row since 1973. The Timely Justice Act is scheduled to take effect on July 1.

(M. Van Sickler, “Lawyer group challenge speedy executions,” Miami Herald, June 26, 2013). Read editorials from the Miami Herald and the Sun Sentinel, which called on Gov. Scott to veto the bill. See Innocence and Recent Legislation.