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.

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