LOOKING BACK AND TO THE FUTURE

by

Thomas A. Horkan, Jr.

January 14, 1999

   January is named after Janus, the Roman goddess with two faces, one looking forward and one looking back. This is a good time to do just that, first looking back to Gov. Lawton Chiles, the last governor, who died last month, and then to our new governor, Jeb Bush.

   Gov. Chiles was a complex man, a straight shooter, stubborn, dedicated to his causes and loyal to his friends.  He brought a strong sense of integrity to public office, limited political contributions to $100, and championed the cause of children at a time when it was not a priority in government. He thought of himself and held himself out as an old Florida cracker and enjoyed putting on those airs. As a native Floridian, I liked Lawton, and for a time enjoyed his friendship.  But two issues arose, very meaningful to me, which caused some hard feelings, although we still respected each other.

   The two issues involved human life, abortion and the death penalty.  In the Florida Senate and then the U. S. Senate, Gov. Chiles opposed abortion except for the life of the mother and for rape and incest.  That was not my position, nor that of the Florida Catholic Conference, but it was better than most.  When he ran for governor, however, that position changed to more of a so-called "pro-choice" position.  He vetoed some pro-life bills, and his administration lobbied against others.

   His position on the death penalty was just as bad.  Steve Goldstein, a law professor now deceased, and I met with Gov. Chiles and his staff early in his administration on clemency in death penalty cases, more particularly, commutation to life imprisonment without parole.  No commutation had been granted in the last term of Gov. Bob Graham's administration or in that of Gov. Bob Martinez. Well over 200 people were then on death row, and we presented a number of reasons why commutation should be considered.  However, the governor insisted that it was up to the courts to clear up any mistakes or improprieties.

   My own frustration with him got worse with time, culminating when I filed a petition to commute the death sentence of a man whose death sentence had been upheld in the courts, but then evidence clearly showed him to have been wrongly convicted. Gov. Chiles denied the petition and issued a writ of execution.  Fortunately, the Florida Supreme Court stepped in because it was such an egregious case, and the death sentence was set aside.

   Now Gov. Jeb Bush has arrived on the scene.  He faces enormous challenges, and brings new energy and solutions to state government.

   Education is a major focus of his administration, and will be a full time job.  We have many fine public schools, and some that are far from fine.  Gov. Bush has called for funding for parental choice programs for students in failing schools, and is opposed by powerful groups in Florida.  He has pledged needed improvements in state programs for children in need and the "frailest and weakest."  His appeal to all Floridians has been well received by most people.

   The life issues will confront him early on.  He has taken a strong pro-life stand in the rights of the unborn child.  Gov. Chiles had vetoed a bill requiring notice to parents before a doctor could perform an abortion on a minor girl.

   That veto or a similar bill will likely come before the Legislature.  The federal court in Miami struck down a partial birth abortion law, and the Legislature may reconsider that this year.  But the state and the governor, are limited in what they can do on this issue, due to legal opinions of the U. S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court.  It will be refreshing to have a governor, however, who speaks out clearly in the defense of unborn children.  Laws cannot change the abortion mentality, but leadership, honesty and advocacy can.

   The issue of life at the other end of the spectrum, on death row, is less clear.  Almost 1,000 death sentences have been issued since Florida reinstated the practice in 1972.  About half of them have been set aside by appellate courts for serious errors.  Forty-nine prisoners have been executed, while 19 have been freed because they were wrongly convicted. There are 380 people on death row today.

   A primary reason for that large population is the political refusal of governor after governor to deal realistically with the constitutionally established process of clemency.  The governor and three members of the cabinet can grant clemency and commute sentences, in this case to life imprisonment, without parole.  Only the governor can commence the process.  For the last 16 years, not one death sentence has been commuted.. This borders on the absurd.

   More importantly, it is time to directly confront the death penalty issue.  Capital punishment is wrong, it has been opposed by Pope John Paul II, who said that cases justifying the death penalty "are very rare if not practically nonexistent."  The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights prohibits it.  Poland, Bulgaria and Lithuania have recently abolished it, and the Russian Federation has agreed to abolish it this year.  Western European countries have already abolished its use in peacetime.

   All of our hemisphere, except for the United States, Peru and two island nations in the Caribbean have abolished it.  Yet we sit here with 380 people awaiting execution.  Taking on this question of the death penalty will not be an easy thing to do, but I hope Gov. Bush does it.