An edi­to­r­i­al in the Miami Herald called on Florida Governor Rick Scott (pic­tured) to veto a bill recent­ly passed by the leg­is­la­ture requir­ing the gov­er­nor to sign a death war­rant with­in 30 days after state Supreme Court review, with the exe­cu­tion tak­ing place with­in 180 days after that. The edi­to­r­i­al list­ed sev­er­al death row inmates who were exon­er­at­ed after spend­ing more than 10 years on death row, and not­ed, ​“All of them might have been exe­cut­ed if the leg­is­la­tion that’s head­ing to the gov­er­nor’s desk had been the law.” The paper urged Gov. Scott to block the leg­is­la­tion and wait for a com­mit­tee appoint­ed by the Florida Supreme Court to study the state’s judi­cial sys­tem to release its find­ings. The edi­to­r­i­al con­clud­ed, ​“If the point is to reduce the stay on death row to less than a decade, it’s the wrong focus. The real prob­lem is slop­py jus­tice, cas­es where evi­dence is hid­den, for instance, and cur­rent state rules that allow judges to impose the death penal­ty with­out even a unan­i­mous jury vote.” Read the Editorial below.

Stop death penal­ty bill, Gov. Scott

In its rush to secure ​“jus­tice,” the Florida Legislature has fast-tracked death-penal­ty leg­is­la­tion at the per­il of the innocent.

House Bill 7083, the ​“Timely Justice Act,” is an attempt to stop friv­o­lous appeals, some­thing every­one can agree on. Sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R‑Shalimar, and Sen. Joe Negron, R‑Palm City, the leg­is­la­tion requires the gov­er­nor to sign a death war­rant with­in 30 days after a state Supreme Court review, with the exe­cu­tion tak­ing place with­in 180 days after that. It does away with cer­tain types of defens­es in death penalty cases.

Whoa.

The Florida Supreme Court already has appoint­ed a com­mit­tee to go over exist­ing judi­cial rules and see how cas­es can move more quick­ly. That study will be released in September.

So why is the Legislature jump­ing ahead — the House passed the bill last week and the Senate gave its nod on Monday — with­out all the facts?

The Death Penalty Information Center lists Florida death row inmates locked up for more than 10 years before being exon­er­at­ed by new evi­dence of their inno­cence: James Richardson (21 years), Juan Melendez (18), Rudolph Holton (16), Frank Lee Smith (14), Freddie Pitts (12), Wilbur Lee (12), Joseph Brown (13), and Seth Penalver (13).

All of them might have been exe­cut­ed if the leg­is­la­tion that’s head­ing to the gov­er­nor’s desk had been the law. That’s exact­ly why Gov. Rick Scott should veto the leg­is­la­tion and have the Legislature wait for the Supreme Court committee’s findings.

The Innocence Project of Florida has worked for more than a decade look­ing for DNA evi­dence when avail­able, evi­dence of mis­tak­en iden­ti­ty by wit­ness­es and — as in the case of Juan Melendez, who served 18 years for a mur­der he did not com­mit — a con­fes­sion by the real killer that the courts missed.

Already, 24 wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed death row inmates have been cleared since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1973 — the most of any of the 32states that impose the death penal­ty. Another 75 pris­on­ers have been exe­cut­ed in Florida. As Mark Elliott, direc­tor of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, points out, ​“That’s 1 exon­er­a­tion for every 3 executions.”

That should give every Floridian pause.

Frank Lee Smith died of can­cer on death row after 14 years in prison. Sadly, after his death, DNA test­ing proved he was inno­cent and also iden­ti­fied the real killer. What kind of jus­tice did Mr. Smith get?

There are heinous crimes that require the death penal­ty, but the evi­dence must be air tight. It’s not in many cas­es. The American Bar Association released an exhaus­tive report in 2006 point­ing out the prob­lems, includ­ing racial dis­par­i­ties in met­ing out jus­tice. For 8 years lit­tle has been done and now Tallahassee law­mak­ers are going full speed ahead in the dark.

If the point is to reduce the stay on death row to less than a decade, it’s the wrong focus. The real prob­lem is slop­py jus­tice, cas­es where evi­dence is hid­den, for instance, and cur­rent state rules that allow judges to impose the death penal­ty with­out even a unan­i­mous jury vote.

As it is, Florida’s aver­age death row stay for inmates is about 13.2 years before exe­cu­tion, which is less than the nation­al aver­age of 14.8 years. Yes, there are cas­es that are more than 2 decades old, but the ​“cure” the Legislature is propos­ing would like­ly result in more inno­cent peo­ple being put to death.

That’s sim­ply unacceptable.

(Editorial, ​“Stop death penal­ty bill, Gov. Scott,” Miami Herald, April 29, 2013). See Innocence and Recent Legislation. Read more Editorials.

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