Right now 399 inmates, including three females, await their fate on Florida's death row. But the state has executed just 69 people since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.
The status of the death penalty in the Sunshine State is far from settled -- and, with the death of toddler Caylee Anthony and the emotional trial of her mother, the issue has suddenly sprung to life again.
Here is the problem: With the current rate of executions, it would take the state of Florida nearly 200 years to execute the prisoners currently on death row. Inevitably, with the backlog, some of them will see their sentence effectively commuted to life in prison.
But that's not the only problem plaguing Florida's death penalty. A recent ruling from a Miami federal judge has called into question the state's entire method of arriving at death sentences.
U.S. District Court Judge Jose Martinez ruled last month that Florida's way of arriving at a death penalty sentence is unconstitutional, because juries are able to recommend the death sentence but are not required to stipulate a reason or point to evidence that a particular crime is so excessively heinous it warrants an execution.
The case involved the sentence of Paul Evans, who has been sitting on death row since 1991 for killing a Vero Beach man. Now Evans must be re-sentenced. Attorney General Pam Bondi is appealing the decision.
Bondi spokesperson Jenn Meale said that four other states have similar death-sentencing guidelines, and that death row sentences and planned executions are not affected while the judge's ruling is being appealed.
"The attorney general's office believes that the ruling is contrary to relevant decisions by the Florida Supreme Court, 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court as it applies to the imposition of the death penalty in this particular case," Meale said.
A week after the ruling, Gov. Rick Scott issued his first death warrant, scheduling the execution of convicted murderer Manuel Valle for Aug. 2 at 6 p.m. EDT.
Scott said that he "prayed about the decision," but that ordering Valle's execution for the 1978 murder of a police officer in Broward County is justice delivered.
"This was the most apropriate case. He killed a law enforcement officer. He attempted to kill another law enforcement officer. It's a hard decision but it's the right thing to do," Scott said.
Scott has not announced a plan to deal with the death row backlog that Florida accrued over the tenure of his predecessors.
The average time on death row for the 69 prisoners executed since 1976 was 12.68 years, according to the Florida Department of Corrections, but juries and judges have been issuing death sentences at a much faster rate than the state can carry them out. The inmate who has been on death row the longest is Gary Alvord, sentenced to death in 1974 for a triple homicide in Hillsborough County.
Legislators, however, have been itching to tinker with the justice system since Wednesday, when Casey Anthony's acquittal sparked nationwide outrage. Caylee went missing in 2008 and was gone a month before Anthony reported her disappearance. Disturbing photos of Casey Anthony partying during that time appeared on the Internet.
Yet, prosecutors were unable to present ironclad evidence of her guilt in the Orange County court, and to the Pinellas County jury (the jurors were trucked in because of the substantial media coverage of the trial and the need for jurors unfamiliar with the case). Anthony was sentenced to four years in prison for lying to police investigators, but will be released next week because of the time off she gained by being in prison for the last three years awaiting trial.
Now, Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami, is sponsoring "Caylee's Law," which would make it a felony for parents or caregivers of children 12 years of age or younger who disappear to fail to report them missing after 48 hours.
Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker, also wants to "explore this issue further" and "discuss any necessary changes to Florida law" when committee meetings begin in the fall, according to a letter he sent to Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island.
Meanwhile, juries and judges who did sentence prisoners to death are being thwarted by a de facto commutation of their sentences.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
