Despite concerns that errors made by poorly paid private attorneys who are unfamiliar with death penalty litigation could risk innocent lives in Florida, Governor Jeb Bush will soon close one of the state’s three Capital Collateral Regional Counsel (CCRC) offices. The offices are designed to defend death row inmates in their post-conviction appeals. Bush is closing the Tallahassee office, where attorneys have successfully freed wrongfully convicted death row inmates. Bush claims that the appeals process will move faster and death row inmates will be better served by Florida’s state-run registry program for private attorneys who volunteer to defend death row inmates, but attorneys working with the CCRC fear that these volunteers lack the time and experience necessary to ensure adequate representation. Attorneys associated with CCRC believe that the closing of remaining offices in Fort Lauderdale and Tampa could be next.
(Palm Beach Post, June 2, 2003). See Innocence.