Sun-Sentinel

Fate of Florida's death row inmates, death penalty law, unsure

14 LUG - Florida executions have been on hold for half a year because of an appeal by an Arizona death row inmate challenging the constitutionality of that state's capital punishment law.

 The moratorium is sure to continue for at least a couple of more months - and maybe the better part of a year.

 But the delay could end up being just a footnote in the history of the case and Florida capital punishment. It's possible Timothy Ring's successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court could be the death knell for every death sentence in Florida.

 Florida has 370 condemned killers on death row. Several have been there more than 20 years and some approaching 30 years.

 Last month in the Ring case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death sentencing laws in Arizona and 4 other states were unconstitutional because judges and not juries decided facts needed to warrant death penalties. Those states combined have 168 death sentences.

 But the nation's high court was silent about similar laws in Florida and three other states - Alabama, Delaware and Indiana - where juries play limited roles in capital sentencing but judges make the final decisions.

 However, a few days after it issued the Ring ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted stays of execution it had granted in late January and early February to 2 Florida death row inmates because the Ring case was pending.

 The state rescheduled the 2 executions for last week. 6 hours before the 1st execution was scheduled to take place, the Florida Supreme Court issued indefinite stays to give itself time to determine if the Ring ruling means Florida's sentencing law is unconstitutional.

 Attorney General Bob Butterworth asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the stay of execution granted by the state court but the justices refused.

 Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters last week he didn't think Ring applied to Florida and spoke of the frustration felt by the relatives of murder victims.

 "In their minds justice has been denied because it's been delayed yet 1 more time by a process that does not put them front and center," he said.

 Lawyers for death row inmates say the Ring case could have a historic impact in Florida.

 "It's potentially the biggest thing to come down the pike in 20 years in terms of capital jurisprudence in Florida," said Martin McClain, a New York attorney who has represented several dozen death row inmates in Florida.

 McClain and other lawyers for death row inmates also say it's possible the capital convictions of people who have been condemned could be in jeopardy.

 However, the Ring case could end up being nothing more than yet another delay in a law that has been implemented in stop-and-start fits since it was passed in a special session in December 1972.

 Carolyn Snurkowski, one of Butterworth's top lawyers, doesn't think Florida's death penalty law will feel much of an impact from the recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

 "I don't think it's that big," she said Friday. "We're going to have to wait and see what the Florida Supreme Court says."

 The state's high court set oral arguments for Aug. 21. Whichever way it rules, the loser is sure to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision. If the nation's top court agrees to take the case, it might not render its decision until next summer.

 Larry Spalding, a former head of the state office that provided legal representation to death row inmates, said while "there's a very strong argument that our entire system is invalid based on Ring," it's not a clear cut case.

 "There are a lots of permeations about how this can work," he said.

 If the Supreme Court - 1st the state and then federal - conclude Florida's law does violate the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury, the question becomes what next?

 Are all death sentences imposed on the 370 people on death row overturned? Are those people all re-sentenced? Or would the court automatically reduce all their death sentences to life in prison?

 ``They wouldn't automatically reduce them to life, I don't think," said Parker Lee McDonald, a former state Supreme Court justice and former head of the Florida Commission on Capital Cases. "But they could."

 Neal Dupree, a Fort Lauderdale attorney, runs one of the 3 state offices that represent death row inmates. The potential impact of the Ring ruling on Florida is huge - but nothing is guaranteed, he said.

 "It could be gigantic and it could be nothing," Dupree said. "They could say it doesn't apply or... throw out every death sentence there is."