An eight-mem­ber pan­el con­vened by the American Bar Association and con­sist­ing of pros­e­cu­tors, defense lawyers, and judges con­clud­ed a two-year study of Florida​’s death penal­ty sys­tem. The pan­el unan­i­mous­ly pro­posed exten­sive changes to improve the accu­ra­cy and fair­ness of the state’s sys­tem. ​“Despite the best efforts of many leg­is­la­tors, judges and lawyers, much more needs to be done to ensure that Florida’s death penal­ty sys­tem avoids exe­cut­ing the inno­cent,” said University of Florida law pro­fes­sor Christopher Slobogin, the pan­el’s chair­man. ​“Florida has released more peo­ple from death row than any oth­er state, which sug­gests the sys­tem has seri­ous prob­lems.” Florida has freed 22 death row inmates who were exon­er­at­ed since 1973.

The pan­el rec­om­mend­ed requir­ing a unan­i­mous jury ver­dict on eli­gi­bil­i­ty for the death penal­ty before judges can impose a death sen­tence. Among oth­er rec­om­men­da­tions from the panel were:

  • Creating a com­mis­sion to inves­ti­gate wrong­ful con­vic­tions in cap­i­tal cas­es and pro­pose meth­ods to prevent them.
  • Creating a sec­ond com­mis­sion to review fac­tu­al claims of innocence.
  • Adopting new stan­dards on the qual­i­fi­ca­tions and com­pen­sa­tion of death penal­ty lawyers and appeals lawyers.
  • Drafting pro­to­cols to deter­mine what cas­es should be eli­gi­ble for the death penalty.
  • Studying racial dis­par­i­ties in cap­i­tal punishment cases.
  • Establishing new rules for clemency.

This is the fourth in a series of state reviews con­duct­ed under the ABA’s Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project. The oth­er states reviewed so far by sim­i­lar ABA pan­els are Georgia, Alabama and Arizona.
(Associated Press, Sept. 17, 2006). To review the ABA’s Press Release, Executive Summary and the full Florida Report, as well as reports on oth­er states, click here. See also Studies and Innocence.

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