During a January special session, the Legislature passed a bill to speed up executions by limiting the number of death row appeals an inmate can file and enacting strict time limits within which those appeals must be filed. The state Supreme Court struck down that law April 14. Instead, it proposed its own set of rules aimed at cutting the time between sentencing and execution. But in court's written opinion, the justices challenged the Legislature, saying that their new rules could not be put into effect without a change to the public records law and adequate funding for the court system and the lawyers who defend indigent death row inmates. Without the necessary funding, the ship is destined to sink.
Many lawmakers are in no mood to take orders from the court.
The Senate Judiciary Committee did vote Monday to make the court's suggested changes to the public records law so that death row lawyers can more speedily file appeals. But with less than two weeks before lawmakers head home for the year, it is far from clear whether the bill will pass both chambers. Meanwhile, the Legislature has yet to act on a recommendation by Gov. Jeb Bush's own task force to further study whether the death penalty is applied in a racially discriminatory manner. Bush is in no rush. So the task force recommendations, as well as recommendations by the Supreme Court, will all be discussed over the course of this year.