We've never been to St. Petersberg, Florida, but they sure do seem to have some enlightened citizens there. Check out these Friday letters to the editor on capital punishment.

Letters to the Editors
Bush should fix errors revealed in Holton case

Re: Private attorneys will speed justice in capital cases, letter, Feb. 18.

In his letter in the St. Petersburg Times, Gov. Jeb Bush "rebuts" assertions that Rudolph Holton was exonerated. The governor's implication, of course, is the tired refrain we hear every time someone is freed after being unconstitutionally convicted: Another inmate has just gotten off on a technicality.

Apparently the governor wishes us to retreat from the primary principle upon which our justice system was founded: innocent until proven guilty. If the governor believed in this principle -- and was committed to it and to actual justice rather than paying it lip service -- he would display the integrity demanded by the high position he holds and admit that unconscionable errors were made in Holton's case, and have been in others. He would then act vigorously to prevent such occurrences in the future.

The bottom line is that if the state has insufficient evidence to convict Rudolph Holton, then he is presumptively no more guilty of murder than is Gov. Bush. As someone who knows Mr. Holton, and (though not assigned to his case) is acquainted with the facts of the case, I can tell you that in addition to being innocent in accordance with the principles and ethics this country was founded upon, Rudy is actually, totally, factually innocent.

The governor's response has been to "consider" proposing an investigation into why it took 16 years for crucial evidence to be located and for recanted testimony to be produced. The real question is: Why did the state withhold crucial evidence from the defense and present perjured testimony in the first place? If the answer is that the state thought that it had the right man, our justice system is in serious trouble. If it is something else, we should all be very worried.

The fact that the governor is either unfamiliar with the details of Rudy's case (and chooses to speak authoritatively anyway), or intentionally misrepresents them by implying Rudy "got off," shows that his real priorities lie elsewhere. In his letter, the governor states, "Justice is denied to everyone when cases are mired in our courts for decades." True. But why does that invariably lead to executing people faster, rather than fixing problems that allow people like Rudy to end up on death row in the first place? And why do we never hear the governor remarking on the horrible injustice of an innocent man spending 16 years on death row? Is the injustice greater when an innocent man is freed after 16 years of being "mired in our courts," or if the wrong man is executed in five years -- as Rudy surely would have been under the governor's "streamlined" justice system?

Can private attorneys adequately defend the more than 375 people on Florida's death row? This is a question for honest, open debate, something impossible when the highest officer in our state cannot acknowledge crucial realities to the people of Florida, who rely on him for integrity, concern and forthrightness.
-- Marc Levi, investigator, Capital Collateral Counsel, Northern Region, Tallahassee (I write this as a citizen of Florida and not a spokesperson for CCC-NR.)