Florida Judge blasts lawyers over Death Row appeals
Monday, February 7, 2005 at 05:32AM
TheSpook
Justice Raoul Cantero decried the poor quality of Death Row briefs by
private attorneys untrained to handle the complex cases and voiced
concerns about Gov. Bush's privatization plan.
The governor's most recent
appointee to the Florida Supreme Court condemned the quality of the
private lawyers handling Death Row appeals, saying some have botched
inmate cases, muddled and omitted key arguments and generally performed the worst lawyering I've seen.Justice Raoul Cantero not only
indicted the private lawyers when he spoke this week to a panel of
lawmakers and judges. He voiced grave concerns about Gov. Jeb Bush's
long-standing effort to close the state-run offices handling the
appeals so that private attorneys can argue the cases on the cheap. In
2003, Bush wanted to shutter all three of the Capital Collateral
Regional Counsel offices. But he persuaded lawmakers to close only the
office representing North Florida. Lawmakers plan to examine this
spring whether to privatize the remaining offices in Fort Lauderdale
and Tampa. The state lists about 150 lawyers in a registry and pays
them $100 an hour, per client, to handle all cases in the north
district or overflow in the south and central areas. To get on the
registry, a lawyer needs only limited experience in criminal courts.
Cantero says this is a problem because an attorney familiar with a few
burglary trials doesn't have the skills to replace someone devoted to
the highly specialized Death Row appeals process, which takes years to
learn and master. Cantero said Tuesday it would be precipitousif the
Legislature decided to use only private practice attorneys, some of
whom file the worst briefs that I have read. . . . I wouldn't say
[they're] incomprehensible. But it's difficult to understand what issue
the attorney is raising in the case. [more
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