Florida Judge blasts lawyers over Death Row appeals

• 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 precipitous if 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