Monday, 2-23-98----

FLORIDA:

He's faced the Florida Supreme Court many times before, asking for

relief from his death penalty conviction.

But when Jacksonville cop killer Leo Jones goes before the state's

highest court Tuesday, it will be with the knowledge that the chief

justice has said in published reports that the death penalty isn't

working.

The hearing, on an appeal of the latest lower court decision upholding

Jones' death sentence, could clear the way for Jones' March 24 date

with the electric chair.

Chief Justice Gerald Kogan, who has voted twice before to execute Jones,

called capital punishment cumbersome, saying it monopolizes Florida's

high court, as about 380 people wait on Death Row in the state. Kogan

said sending inmates to prison for life without the possibility of parole

makes more sense.

Now that Kogan has aired his personal opinions about the death penalty,

how will his views influence the Jones case? Attorneys, victims rights

advocates, and other court watchers disagree on the answer to that

question.

"I believe that if he's anti-death penalty, it would seem most likely

that he would vote to give Leo Jones every opportunity to get him off,"

said Jacksonville police Sgt. Buddy Hayes, who was a friend of Officer

Thomas Szafranski, who Jones was convicted of killing in 1981.

But Michael Radelet, a University of Florida professor and author of

several books and law review articles on the death penalty, said many

jurists around the country are opposed to the death penalty.

"Judges who are opposed to the death penalty are no more biased than

judges who favor the death penalty on these issues," he said.

The Jones case goes before the Supreme Court for oral arguments

following the recent denial by retired Circuit Judge Clarence Johnson

Jr. to set aside Jones' conviction in the Szafranski murder.

The officer was gunned down while driving his patrol car in May 1981.

Jacksonville police arrested Jones in a nearby apartment, where 2

Winchester rifles were under a bed.

1 of the rifles contained Jones' fingerprints. Jones confessed to the

murder but later recanted, saying police forced the confession out of

im.

Jones contends another man, Glenn Schofield, killed Szafranski. Jones'

lawyers tried unsuccessfully in a December evidentiary hearing to

convince Johnson to grant Jones a new trial.

Ironically, Johnson made his ruling during the same week in which Kogan

said in published reports that capital punishment wasn't working in

Florida and was too cumbersome.

Former Tallahassee attorney and Supreme Court watcher Ray Marky said the

issue is not whether Kogan's personal opinions about the death penalty

will influence his vote but whether his comments will influence the

public about the judiciary system.

"That's why judges are not supposed to comment on such matters," Marky

said.

The only other judge Marky could think of who had done something similar

was former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun.

"And everybody was a little bit stunned when he came out and talked about

it," he said. "It's very, very unusual."

Many court watchers said they were shocked and surprised that any Supreme

Court justice would make such a statement.

"For any justice to make an open unqualified comment as he did I think

is inappropriate," said Mathew Staver, president and general counsel of

Liberty Counsel, a conservative civil liberties education and legal

defense organization.

"Obviously that is going to be 1 vote (against death) already before

the case is even argued."

Staver said justices should be careful about making such public

statements knowing that those issues would be decided in their very

courtroom.

"I think it destroys the public confidence in the judiciary as to

whether there's going to be a fair hearing of the issues," Staver said.

But American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel Larry Spalding

said he doesn't think Kogan's vote will be any different than in the

past.

Since joining the Florida Supreme Court in 1987, Kogan has voted both in

favor of and against Jones. Twice in 1988, Kogan voted for Jones'

execution.

In 1991, he voted for an evidentiary hearing in the Jones' case. In

1996, Kogan voted to affirm the second denial of Jones' 2nd post-

conviction motion.

And last year, Kogan twice voted for evidentiary hearings on Jones'

claim that the electric chair was cruel and unusual punishment, thus

staying Jones' execution. In October of last year, Kogan dissented in

the Supreme Court's ruling that the electric chair was not cruel or

unusual punishment.

"He is an extremely intelligent and judicial officer," Spalding said.

"Every member of the judiciary has an opinion on the death penalty."

(source: Jacksonville Times Union)