Legal Fight over Florida’s Electric Chair

FLORIDA 2-21-98

The legal fight over use of Florida’s 75-year-old electric chair may be prolonged by financial and ethic problems, said a state lawyer who filed the federal suit.

The hearing is still set to begin Monday, exactly one month before the 1^st of 4 electrocutions scheduled over an 8-day period.

But McClain, the state lawyer who argues that death in Florida’s electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment, has asked to withdraw from the case, citing office budget problems, among other things.

Last March, a foot-long flame erupted during Florida’s most recent electrocution, but the state Supreme Court upheld use of the chair 7 months later, rejecting a constitutional challenge filed by McClain.

Florida has no other means of execution.

Last week, McClain asked U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle to delay the federal lawsuit because the office has run out of money to pay for travel on experts. The judge refused.

McClain filed a motion to with draw from the case Tuesday.

"The judge said he would find other counsel to do it," McClain said, adding that such a step would probably require a delay.

McClain said his motion to withdraw is not just about money. Legislators don’t believe state law gives him the authority to file the federal suit, and the office of Attorney General Bob Butterworth has asked the state Supreme Court to rule on the question.

And there’s still another problem, according to McClain, siting criticism by a lawmaker at a meeting of the commission on Administration of Justice in Capital Cases.

Rep. Sally Heyman, D-North Miami Beach, a member of the oversight panel, said she would not be able to support funding requests by McClain’s office because of the federal case.

McClain said Heyman’s warning creates an ethical dilemma for him because he also represents other Death row inmates and their cases could suffer if the office gets less money.

(Source: Miami Herald)