Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 19, 2006 16:31:24 GMT -5
Bar study harsh on Fla. death penalty
The American Bar Association released a soup-to-nuts review of Florida's
death penalty today, highlighting serious problems with the fairness and
accuracy of execution in the Sunshine State.
In the 454-page report, a team of influential Florida lawyers - both
supporters and opponents - recommended a panoply of changes and urged
further study of racial disparity, finding the process is clearly not
color-blind.
"It appears that those convicted of killing white victims are far more
likely to receive a death sentence and be executed," according to the
report.
The review also called for 2 independent commissions to investigate
wrongful convictions and innocence claims.
Florida leads the nation in death row exonerations, 22 of them since the
penalty was reinstated in 1973. During the same time, Florida executed 60
death row inmates.
"Over one exoneration for every 3 executions," according to the report.
The ABA report did not call for a moratorium on executions. It did not
address the morality of the death penalty, nor did it express support or
opposition to it.
The study is headed by eight lawyers, both supporters and opponents.
One ardent supporter who signed off on the review hopes it will not be
used as a tool to abolish the practice but will dramatically improve its
process.
Harry Shorstein is chief prosecutor in the Jacksonville area. At one time,
Shorstein sought the death penalty more often than any other Florida
prosecutor, he said. He believes it has not been fairly applied throughout
the state.
"Whether liberal or conservative, I don't think anyone can say it has
worked well," Shorstein said.
"We should have a fair and equitable death penalty or not at all; that's
the the bottom line."
A spokeswoman for Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday afternoon that staff attorneys
had not fully reviewed the documents. Alia Faraj said Bush's office will
respond to the recommendations at some point.
Faraj emphasized the governor is a proponent of DNA testing. Bush signed
into law recently a bill that eliminated deadlines for defendants to
complete the scientific test.
"There is a very difficult balance between swiftness and fairness," Faraj
said.
The ABA report, two years in the making, was highly critical of the
cloaked process of clemency, a procedure under which convicts can ask for
forgiveness or mercy from the governor and his Cabinet members. They have
the power to commute death sentences to life in prison.
In the Sunshine State, the governor can deny clemency at any time, for any
reason, without any hearing.
Clemency has not been granted to an inmate sentenced to death in 23 years.
Yet, its full and proper use is essential to guaranteeing fairness in the
death penalty, according to ABA findings.
An attorney for Bush did respond in the report, defending the practice of
confidentiality, saying it allowed members to search their personal
consciences for what mercy required.
The ABA review was not at all meant to wax poetic on morality, said
another of its authors, Mark Schlakman of Florida State University.
Rather, it sought to identify problems that Florida should address to
minimize the risk of executing innocent people. According to Schlakman, it
is a process "fraught with problems."
One of the most urgent, he said, is the failure of Florida to provide
inmates qualified, adequately paid attorneys for those on death row.
Another is the vast inconsistency around the state in seeking death.
"You can have 20 different state attorneys and conceivably have 20
different criteria," Schlakman said.
Within Palm Beach County, variations can be baffling on their face.
Prosecutors here offered a man who killed 5 life in prison, but people who
killed just one sometimes face a death-penalty trial.
A spokesman for the local state attorney's office declined to comment on
the ABA report, except to reiterate State Attorney Barry Krischer's
policy.
Michael Edmondson said the office seeks death when there exist legal
aggravating circumstances such as killing for money or in a heinous,
atrocious or cruel way. The office does not seek death when there exist
legal mitigating circumstances, such as age or lack of criminal history.
That provides consistency in this county, he said.
The sweeping report also recommended that jurors, not judges, be the ones
to sentence people to death, and then by a unanimous verdict. Florida is
one of thelast states that does not require juries to be unanimous -
something the Florida Supreme Court justices urged the legislature to
revisit last year.
Currently in Florida, judges decide whether to adopt a jury recommendation
of whether the prisoner should live or die. Judges rarely override that
recommendation, and the courts have waffled over the decades on whether
the judges are allowed to do so - one of the inconsistencies prosecutor
Shorstein bristles at.
In Palm Beach County, jurors rarely recommend execution. It has been years
since a decision of "death" came from a group of citizens. Additionally,
judges here are very reluctant to sentence a defendant to death, said
Edmondson.
Just Friday, a jury here recommended a life sentence for a Lake Park man
convicted of bludgeoning his wife to death with a tire iron. Jeffrey Lamb
is accused of beating his wife so savagely her brains fell out of her
head.
Opponents of the death penalty welcomed the exhaustive ABA report. Mark
Elliott of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty was
disappointed, though, that there still is no call for a moratorium. He
cited the governor of Illinois' moratorium six years ago after a series of
wrongful convictions.
Illinois is 2nd only to Florida in total number of wrongful convictions,
he said.
"In Illinois, the governor declared this was proof of the catastrophic
failure of the death penalty system and commuted the sentences of
everyone," Elliott said. "In Florida, it's business as usual.
(source: Palm Beach Post)
The American Bar Association released a soup-to-nuts review of Florida's
death penalty today, highlighting serious problems with the fairness and
accuracy of execution in the Sunshine State.
In the 454-page report, a team of influential Florida lawyers - both
supporters and opponents - recommended a panoply of changes and urged
further study of racial disparity, finding the process is clearly not
color-blind.
"It appears that those convicted of killing white victims are far more
likely to receive a death sentence and be executed," according to the
report.
The review also called for 2 independent commissions to investigate
wrongful convictions and innocence claims.
Florida leads the nation in death row exonerations, 22 of them since the
penalty was reinstated in 1973. During the same time, Florida executed 60
death row inmates.
"Over one exoneration for every 3 executions," according to the report.
The ABA report did not call for a moratorium on executions. It did not
address the morality of the death penalty, nor did it express support or
opposition to it.
The study is headed by eight lawyers, both supporters and opponents.
One ardent supporter who signed off on the review hopes it will not be
used as a tool to abolish the practice but will dramatically improve its
process.
Harry Shorstein is chief prosecutor in the Jacksonville area. At one time,
Shorstein sought the death penalty more often than any other Florida
prosecutor, he said. He believes it has not been fairly applied throughout
the state.
"Whether liberal or conservative, I don't think anyone can say it has
worked well," Shorstein said.
"We should have a fair and equitable death penalty or not at all; that's
the the bottom line."
A spokeswoman for Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday afternoon that staff attorneys
had not fully reviewed the documents. Alia Faraj said Bush's office will
respond to the recommendations at some point.
Faraj emphasized the governor is a proponent of DNA testing. Bush signed
into law recently a bill that eliminated deadlines for defendants to
complete the scientific test.
"There is a very difficult balance between swiftness and fairness," Faraj
said.
The ABA report, two years in the making, was highly critical of the
cloaked process of clemency, a procedure under which convicts can ask for
forgiveness or mercy from the governor and his Cabinet members. They have
the power to commute death sentences to life in prison.
In the Sunshine State, the governor can deny clemency at any time, for any
reason, without any hearing.
Clemency has not been granted to an inmate sentenced to death in 23 years.
Yet, its full and proper use is essential to guaranteeing fairness in the
death penalty, according to ABA findings.
An attorney for Bush did respond in the report, defending the practice of
confidentiality, saying it allowed members to search their personal
consciences for what mercy required.
The ABA review was not at all meant to wax poetic on morality, said
another of its authors, Mark Schlakman of Florida State University.
Rather, it sought to identify problems that Florida should address to
minimize the risk of executing innocent people. According to Schlakman, it
is a process "fraught with problems."
One of the most urgent, he said, is the failure of Florida to provide
inmates qualified, adequately paid attorneys for those on death row.
Another is the vast inconsistency around the state in seeking death.
"You can have 20 different state attorneys and conceivably have 20
different criteria," Schlakman said.
Within Palm Beach County, variations can be baffling on their face.
Prosecutors here offered a man who killed 5 life in prison, but people who
killed just one sometimes face a death-penalty trial.
A spokesman for the local state attorney's office declined to comment on
the ABA report, except to reiterate State Attorney Barry Krischer's
policy.
Michael Edmondson said the office seeks death when there exist legal
aggravating circumstances such as killing for money or in a heinous,
atrocious or cruel way. The office does not seek death when there exist
legal mitigating circumstances, such as age or lack of criminal history.
That provides consistency in this county, he said.
The sweeping report also recommended that jurors, not judges, be the ones
to sentence people to death, and then by a unanimous verdict. Florida is
one of thelast states that does not require juries to be unanimous -
something the Florida Supreme Court justices urged the legislature to
revisit last year.
Currently in Florida, judges decide whether to adopt a jury recommendation
of whether the prisoner should live or die. Judges rarely override that
recommendation, and the courts have waffled over the decades on whether
the judges are allowed to do so - one of the inconsistencies prosecutor
Shorstein bristles at.
In Palm Beach County, jurors rarely recommend execution. It has been years
since a decision of "death" came from a group of citizens. Additionally,
judges here are very reluctant to sentence a defendant to death, said
Edmondson.
Just Friday, a jury here recommended a life sentence for a Lake Park man
convicted of bludgeoning his wife to death with a tire iron. Jeffrey Lamb
is accused of beating his wife so savagely her brains fell out of her
head.
Opponents of the death penalty welcomed the exhaustive ABA report. Mark
Elliott of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty was
disappointed, though, that there still is no call for a moratorium. He
cited the governor of Illinois' moratorium six years ago after a series of
wrongful convictions.
Illinois is 2nd only to Florida in total number of wrongful convictions,
he said.
"In Illinois, the governor declared this was proof of the catastrophic
failure of the death penalty system and commuted the sentences of
everyone," Elliott said. "In Florida, it's business as usual.
(source: Palm Beach Post)