Following the pro­vi­sions of Florida​’s recent­ly passed ​“Timely Justice Act,” the clerk of the state’s Supreme Court has iden­ti­fied 132 inmates on death row who are ​“war­rant ready,” based on their appeals. However, few­er than 20 of those inmates have begun the exec­u­tive clemen­cy process that must be com­plet­ed before an exe­cu­tion can take place. Once the gov­er­nor sig­nals that the clemen­cy process is over for an inmate, a death war­rant must be signed in 30 days, but there is no manda­to­ry sched­ule for the ini­tial review. Over 150 attor­neys rep­re­sent­ing inmates on Florida’s death row are chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the law, say­ing it vio­lates the sep­a­ra­tion of pow­ers, as well as the inmates’ rights to due process and equal pro­tec­tion. Stephen Harper, a law pro­fes­sor at Florida International University, said, ​“This [law] could cre­ate an unnec­es­sary con­sti­tu­tion­al mess between the gov­er­nor, the Legislature and the Florida Supreme Court as it’s being lit­i­gat­ed right now.” Florida has already exe­cut­ed 5 inmates in 2013, sec­ond only to Texas. No one on death row has been grant­ed clemen­cy in Florida in 30 years.

(D. Kim, ​“New ​‘Timely Justice Act’ not so time­ly,” News Service of Florida, October 7, 2013). See Recent Legislation.

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