Bar favors eliminating judicial death penalty override
Dublin Core
Title
Bar favors eliminating judicial death penalty override
Subject
Capital punishment--Florida.
Creator
Blankenship, Gary
Source
Florida Bar News
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
1986-02-01
Rights
The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source.
Format
1 jpg
300 dpi
Language
English
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
The Florida Bar will lobby for removing judges’ power to override juries to impose death penalties and for appointing all trial judges, as part of its 1986 legislative program.
The Bar’s Trial Lawyers Section will also support increasing juror compensation. The Board of Governors delayed a decision on a constitutional amendment to abolish residency requirements for Supreme Court justices.
The Board of Governors adopted those positions, among others, at its January 9-10 meeting in Orlando.
The proposal to change the state law allowing judges to override jury recommendations of life imprisonment came from the Bar’s Individual Rights and Responsibilities Committee.
Committee member Michael Mello said the jury better represents community feelings about a crime and the present law “increases chances innocent people will be executed.”
He quoted jurors as saying in some cases, “We thought the state’s evidence was strong enough to convict, but not strong enough to impose the ultimate penalty.”
Mello, who works for the state Office of the Capital Collateral Representative, which represents death row inmates, added “For the last 12 years, the [Florida] Supreme court has overruled between two-thirds and three-quarters of the cases involving jury overrides.”
The Board approved the position by a 21-7 vote challenge at subsequent elections.
The residency requirements were extensively debated, with the Board initially rejecting a recommendation it lobby for the amendment, leaving it without a formal position. But when the Trial Lawyers Section asked permission to lobby for the measure, the Board first voted to oppose the amendment and then defeated a motion to allow the section to lobby for it anyway.
The Board finally voted to send the topic back to the Legislation Committee and the Trial Lawyers Section for more study.
“I feel on this important issue, we should take more time,” said Orlando Board member Chandler R. Muller, as he moved to send the issue back to the committee.
Some Board members argued allowing the Trial Lawyers Section to support the measure even though the Board opposed it would help explain to legislator how the Bar works. But other Board members replied it would only confuse lawmakers and lessen the Bar’s effectiveness.
“It’s ridiculous for us to take a position on this Board and allow a section to take a position opposite to that,” Miami Board member Alan T. Dimond said.
On other matters the Board:
The Bar’s Trial Lawyers Section will also support increasing juror compensation. The Board of Governors delayed a decision on a constitutional amendment to abolish residency requirements for Supreme Court justices.
The Board of Governors adopted those positions, among others, at its January 9-10 meeting in Orlando.
The proposal to change the state law allowing judges to override jury recommendations of life imprisonment came from the Bar’s Individual Rights and Responsibilities Committee.
Committee member Michael Mello said the jury better represents community feelings about a crime and the present law “increases chances innocent people will be executed.”
He quoted jurors as saying in some cases, “We thought the state’s evidence was strong enough to convict, but not strong enough to impose the ultimate penalty.”
Mello, who works for the state Office of the Capital Collateral Representative, which represents death row inmates, added “For the last 12 years, the [Florida] Supreme court has overruled between two-thirds and three-quarters of the cases involving jury overrides.”
The Board approved the position by a 21-7 vote challenge at subsequent elections.
The residency requirements were extensively debated, with the Board initially rejecting a recommendation it lobby for the amendment, leaving it without a formal position. But when the Trial Lawyers Section asked permission to lobby for the measure, the Board first voted to oppose the amendment and then defeated a motion to allow the section to lobby for it anyway.
The Board finally voted to send the topic back to the Legislation Committee and the Trial Lawyers Section for more study.
“I feel on this important issue, we should take more time,” said Orlando Board member Chandler R. Muller, as he moved to send the issue back to the committee.
Some Board members argued allowing the Trial Lawyers Section to support the measure even though the Board opposed it would help explain to legislator how the Bar works. But other Board members replied it would only confuse lawmakers and lessen the Bar’s effectiveness.
“It’s ridiculous for us to take a position on this Board and allow a section to take a position opposite to that,” Miami Board member Alan T. Dimond said.
On other matters the Board:
- Approved a Trial Lawyers Section recommendation to support increasing juror compensation from $10 to $25 a day, with the funds coming rom higher filing fees. The Board also approved a section recommendation to draw juror pools from driver license lists as well as voter registration rolls.
- Approved a Family Law Section an estate by the entirely unless stated differently in the mortgage. The Board also allowed the section to oppose a bill easing commercial mortgage foreclosure restrictions. The section found the bill too broad for the stated purpose of making it simpler to foreclose on some condominium projects.
- Supported Tax Section requests it be allowed to support several bills, ranging from creating a division of tax policy in the state Department of Revenue to barring tax collectors from enforcing any but good faith payments until property tax disputes are resolved.
- Approved allowing the Trial Lawyers Section to lobby in Congres against federal products liability legislation.
- Failed, by a 15-12 vote, to support a proposed ABA recommendation calling for a federal intercircuit panel to resolve disputes between federal circuit courts without a Supreme Court appeal. A two-thirds Board vote is required to approve such a legislative position.
The Board also took no position on creation of a chief administrative judge for the federal system. Both the intercircuit panel and administrative judge have been sought by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger and will be considered by the ABA at its midyear meeting. The Board will again consider legislative positions, including the controversial proposed modification of the Marketable Record Title Act (see related story elsewhere in the News) at its March 19-22 meeting in Tampa. Also on the agenda will be Bar responses to proposed state legislation to change the tort system, including the modification or repeal of joint and several liability.
Original Format
Newspaper
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
Blankenship, Gary, “Bar favors eliminating judicial death penalty override,” HIST299, accessed March 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/97.