On September 16, 2009, the ABA’s Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project co-sponsored a forum and CLE program titled “The Florida Death Penalty: A Retrospective on the ABA Assessment on Capital Punishment in Florida.”

The three-hour forum took place at the Florida State University College of Law Rotunda and discussed the findings of the ABA Assessment on the Florida Death Penalty three years after the ABA completed one of the most comprehensive studies to date on the fairness and accuracy of Florida’s capital punishment system. Panelists included Former ABA President Sandy D’Alemberte, state court judges, respected capital defense attorneys, a former Florida State Attorney, academic researchers, and a citizen who was exonerated after spending 17 years on Florida’s death row. Panelists focused on a range of problems identified in the 2006 ABA report, including ineffective defense counsel, prosecutorial issues, juror confusion, clemency, wrongful conviction, fiscal implications of the death penalty and the propriety of alternatives to capital punishment. Over 150 lawyers, students, and citizens attended the forum in person and countless others watched the program on the web through a live webcast feed. Over 20 attorneys gained CLE credit through their attendance. The forum also garnered significant press from local, state, and national media markets, with coverage from AP, Gannett, the Tallahassee Democrat, and a local radio station. An op-ed authored by a former Florida Supreme Court Justice and a member of the ABA Assessment team ran in several state-wide newspapers on the day of the forum, discussing the importance of the ABA report and need for reform of Florida’s broken capital punishment system.

Flyer: “The Florida Death Penalty: A Retrospective on the ABA Assessment on Capital Punishment in Florida.”
CLE Forms: Uniform Certificate of Attendance
Click here to check out a webcast of the entire Florida program on the death penalty.

Florida Death Penalty Assessment Report and Supplemental Materials

Executive Summary of the Florida Death Penalty Report

Full Florida Death Penalty Assessment Report

Florida Death Penalty Assessment Guide

Florida Death Penalty Assesment Team Biographies

Fact Sheet: Problems with Florida's Death Penalty System and Recommendations for Reform

Compliance Charts: Florida's Compliance with ABA Recommendations

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Resources on the Administration of the Death Penalty in Florida

• Richard L. Rosenbaum, Child's Play No Longer: Children Charged and Tried as Adults in Florida-Ending up in Prison For Life Without Parole, 28 Nova L. Rev. 485 (2004).

• L. Elizabeth Chamblee, Time for a Legislative Change: Florida's Stagnant Standard Governing Competency for Execution, 31 Fl. St. Univ. L. Rev. 335 (2004).

• Catherine Arcabascio, Freeing the Innocent: Obtaining Post-Conviction DNA Testing in Florida, 28 Nova L. Rev. 61 (2003).

• Benjamin F. Diamond, The Sixth Amendment: Where did the Jury Go Wrong? Florida's Flawed Sentencing in Death Penalty Cases, 55 Fla. L. Rev. 905 (2003).
  
  
• Ken Driggs, Regulating the Five Steps to Death: A Study of Death Penalty Direct Appeals in the Florida Supreme Court, 1991-2000, 14 St. Thomas L. Rev. 759 (2002).

• Case Histories: A Review of 24 Individuals Released from Death Row, Florida Commission on Capital Cases, Sept. 10, 2002.

• Michael L. Radelet, Recent Developments in the Death Penalty in Florida, Feb. 2002, at www.fadp.org/pad/aresearch.html.
  
• Sentencing Alternatives for Juveniles Indicted for Murder, Interim Project Report 2002-129, Florida Senate (2001).

• Donna Buchholz, Modern Day Chateau D'If In Florida? Collecting Dust on the Shelves of Justice: Potentially Exculpatory DNA Evidence Waits For A Turn in the Florida Sunshine, 30 Stetson L. Rev. 391 (2000).

• James E. Harrison, The Juvenile Death Penalty in Florida: Should Sixteen-Year-old Offenders be Subject to Capital Punishment, 1 Barry L. Rev. 159 (2000).

• Lonn Lanza-Kaduce, Charles E. Frazier, and Donna M. Bishop, Juvenile Transfers in Florida: The Worst of the Worst?, 10 Univ. Fl. J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 277 (1999).

• Henry George White, Charles E. Frazier, and Lonn Lanza-Kaduce, A Socio-Legal History of Florida's Juvenile Transfer Reforms, 10 Univ. Fl. J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 249 (1999).

• Ken Driggs, The Most Aggravated and Least Mitigated Murders: Capital Proportionality Review in Florida, 11 St. Thomas L. Rev. 207 (1999).

• Report to the Commission on the Administration of Justice in Capital Cases, Florida State University, prepared by Isabelle Potts and Gretchen Hirt, Jan. 1999, at www.fcc.state.fl.us/fcc/reports/fsu/fsuexsum.html.

• Overview of Judicial Process from Arrest through Post-Conviction, Law Office of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel Middle Region, Nov. 9, 1998, at www.fcc.state.fl.us/fcc/reports/appeals.html.

• Michael Mello, Outlaw Executive 'Crazy Joe', The Hypnotized Witness, and the Mirage of Clemency in Florida, 23 J. Contemp. L. 1 (1997).

• Gary Caldwell, Florida Capital Cases: July 1, 1994-June 30, 1995, 20 Nova L. Rev. 1255 (1996).

• Juvenile Justice Transfer Legislation in Florida: Assessing the Impact on the Criminal Justice and Correctional Systems, Florida Corrections Commission (1993-94).

• Analysis of Florida Felony Offenders Serving Sentences in County Jails, Corrections Commission (1994).

• Gary Caldwell, Capital Crimes: 1993 Survey of Florida Law, 18 Nova L. Rev. 117 (1993).

• Gary Caldwell, Capital Crime Decisions: 1992 Survey of Florida Law, 17 Nova L. Rev. 31 (1992).

• Michael L. Radelet and Glenn L. Pierce, Choosing Those Who Will Die: Race and the Death Penalty in Florida, 43 Fl. L. Rev. 1 (1991).

• William S. Geimer and Jonathan Amsterdam, Why Jurors Vote Life or Death: Operative Factors in Ten Florida Death Penalty Cases, 15 Am. J. Crim. L. 1 (1987/1988).

• David W. Doyle, Life or Death in Florida: What Mitigating Evidence will the Judge Consider in Capital Cases?, 4 Cooley L. Rev. 693 (1987).

• Linda A. Foley, Florida After the Furman Decision: The Effect of Extralegal Factors on the Processing of Capital Offense Cases, 5 Behav. Sci. & L. 457 (1987).

• Michael L. Radelet, Rejecting the Jury: The Imposition of the Death Penalty in Florida, 18 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1409 (1985).

• Michael Radelet and Margaret Vandiver, The Florida Supreme Court and Death Penalty Appeals, 74 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 913 (1983).

• Hans Zeisel, Race Bias in the Administration of the Death Penalty: The Florida Experience, 95 Harv. L. Rev. 456 (1981).

• Discrimination and Arbitrariness in Capital Punishment: An Analysis of Post-Furman Murder Cases in Dade County, Florida, 1973-1976, 33 Stan. L. Rev. 75 (1980).

• Peter W. Lewis, Henry W. Mannle, Harry E. Allen, and Harold J. Vetter, A Post-Furman Profile of Florida's Condemned-A Question of Discrimination in Terms of the Race of the Victim and a Comment on Spenkelink v. Wainwright, IX Stetson L. Rev. 1 (1979).