A recent op-ed in the Florida Times-Union point­ed to con­tin­u­ing prob­lems in Florida’s death penal­ty sys­tem despite pri­or rec­om­men­da­tions for change in an American Bar Association report three years ago. The arti­cle was writ­ten by Raoul Cantero III, a for­mer Florida Supreme Court jus­tice appoint­ed by Gov. Jeb Bush, and Mark Schlakman, a senior pro­gram direc­tor for Florida State University’s Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. The authors state that lit­tle has been done by either the state gov­ern­ment or the Florida Bar Association in response to the ABA’s find­ings. The ABA report addressed the often abysmal legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion of defen­dants in post-con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings, socioe­co­nom­ic and geo­graph­ic bias in seek­ing the death penal­ty ver­sus a life sen­tence, and lack of fair­ness and accu­ra­cy in the sys­tem. The authors note that these prob­lems remain, but there is a chance that new polit­i­cal lead­ers could still bring about change: ​“The chal­lenge for those who hold and aspire to elect­ed office is to ensure that per­son­al per­spec­tives per­tain­ing to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and the pub­lic out­rage aris­ing out of heinous crimes, do not over­shad­ow the fact that Florida’s death penal­ty process is fraught with prob­lems. Floridians expect a sys­tem of jus­tice that engen­ders con­fi­dence based upon fair­ness and accu­ra­cy. With regard to the state’s death penal­ty process, in many respects that stan­dard has proven to be elusive.”

The op-ed not­ed that since 1973, Florida has exon­er­at­ed more death row inmates than any oth­er state. The entire edi­to­r­i­al may be read below:

State’s death penalty system still ​‘fraught with problems’

Three years ago, the American Bar Association released a Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team report that raised seri­ous con­cerns about the state’s death penalty process.

Since then, nei­ther the state gov­ern­ment nor The Florida Bar Association has done much to rem­e­dy the problems.

To study Florida’s death penal­ty sys­tem, the ABA assem­bled a high­ly qual­i­fied eight-member team.

The report was devel­oped after almost two years of research and analy­sis, and find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions had to be unan­i­mous to be includ­ed in the report.

The report’s find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions were intend­ed to improve the admin­is­tra­tion of jus­tice in Florida and pro­mote fair­ness and accu­ra­cy in our crim­i­nal-jus­tice sys­tem with­out regard to one’s views on capital punishment.

‘Abysmal’

Among the report’s find­ings was that legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion of death penal­ty defen­dants in post­con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings is often abysmal.

The report makes sev­er­al relat­ed rec­om­men­da­tions, includ­ing rein­stat­ing the cap­i­tal col­lat­er­al region­al coun­sel office in the Northern Region of Florida. Gov. Charlie Crist has expressed sup­port for rein­stat­ing the north­ern CCRC office.

Another of the report’s major rec­om­men­da­tions embraces a Florida Supreme Court opin­ion that called upon the Legislature to revis­it the death penalty statute.

The report, like the opin­ion, observed that Florida is the only one of 35 death penal­ty states that allows a jury to decide that aggra­vat­ing fac­tors exist and to rec­om­mend a sen­tence of death by a majority vote.

Unresponsive 

Despite the court’s strong­ly word­ed opin­ion, the Legislature has been unresponsive.

It was report­ed that Gov. Jeb Bush said that the issue was ​“def­i­nite­ly worth con­sid­er­a­tion” and cau­tioned leg­is­la­tors not to ignore the court.

Yet, Crist has voiced oppo­si­tion to the recommendation.

Another alarm­ing prob­lem with Florida’s death penal­ty is the num­ber of defen­dants on Death Row who have been exonerated.

Innocent convicted 

The Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides inde­pen­dent analy­sis on issues con­cern­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, says Florida has exon­er­at­ed more death-sen­tenced inmates than any oth­er state since 1973.

One was exon­er­at­ed after he died of can­cer on Death Row.

The report also express­es con­cern about socioe­co­nom­ic and geo­graph­ic bias. Prosecutors from one cir­cuit might opt for the death penal­ty while pros­e­cu­tors from anoth­er might opt for life without parole.

As the 2010 cam­paigns for statewide office and the Legislature take shape, con­ven­tion­al wis­dom sug­gests that both Republicans and Democrats will resist tak­ing posi­tions that could be per­ceived as any­thing but tough on crime and strong on the death penalty.

Circuit judges, who pre­side over cap­i­tal cas­es, while non­par­ti­san and sub­ject to the judi­cial canons, are not com­plete­ly immune from such dynam­ics, since they also face the voters periodically.

Fairness, accuracy needed 

The chal­lenge for those who hold and aspire to elect­ed office is to ensure that per­son­al per­spec­tives per­tain­ing to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and the pub­lic out­rage aris­ing out of heinous crimes, do not over­shad­ow the fact that Florida’s death penal­ty process is fraught with problems.

Floridians expect a sys­tem of jus­tice that engen­ders con­fi­dence based upon fair­ness and accu­ra­cy. With regard to the state’s death penal­ty process, in many respects that stan­dard has proven to be elusive.

We hope that this elec­tion cycle will pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty to open­ly and hon­est­ly dis­cuss these issues and possible solutions.

(R. Cantero & M. Schlakman, ​“State’s death penal­ty sys­tem still ​‘fraught with prob­lems,’ ” Florida Times-Union, Sept. 25, 2009 (op-ed)). See also Arbitrariness, Innocence, and Representation.