Clemency cash could ease backlog

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Florida commission that helps investigate clemency cases is anticipating an influx of cash that could significantly boost its staffing levels, a “crucial” component to speed up the state’s mercy process.

Florida lawmakers have agreed to give $750,000 to the Florida Commission on Offender Review to help alleviate a backlog of nearly 24,000 clemency cases wait-listed for review by the Board of Executive Clemency, comprised of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet.

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The money is tucked into the $91.1 billion state budget proposed for the upcoming 2019-2020 fiscal year. The budget is pending approval by DeSantis.

If the governor signs off on the spending, the commission wants to hire 15 full-time staffers to help chip away at the unresolved cases, which include applications from felons seeking to have their civil rights restored.

“The additional funds and staff will be crucial in helping the commission process more cases,” Kelly Corder, a commission spokeswoman, said. “It would be more than hundreds, but I can’t specify further than that.”

The move to inject more money into the clemency process comes after state lawmakers zeroed out the commission’s budget request for $500,000 last year, when former Gov. Rick Scott was at the helm.

“There’s been disappointment from many of us over the last several years in the system that was in place with the Cabinet before and how they handled clemency petitions,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said in late April.

Bradley was referring to Scott’s eight years overseeing the clemency process, which was marred by controversy that began shortly after the Republican governor took office in 2011. Scott, now a U.S. senator, and the Florida Cabinet imposed new clemency rules that made it harder for felons to have their rights restored.

Under the system created by Scott and the Cabinet in 2011, felons must wait five years before applying to have their civil rights restored. Felons who have been convicted of certain violent crimes or sexual offenses must wait at least seven years before seeking a hearing to have their rights restored. That system is still in place.

But with a new governor now in charge, Bradley said legislators approved the money for the upcoming year because they are “encouraged” by how the Board of Executive Clemency now is handling the clemency process.

For example, just three days after DeSantis and the Cabinet members took office in January, the clemency board unanimously pardoned the “Groveland Four,” one of the most-notorious cases from Florida’s Jim Crow era in which four young black men were falsely accused of raping a white woman in Lake County.

“We were very encouraged by the new Cabinet and their probably more open-minded approach when considering these types of petitions,” Bradley explained.

Lawmakers approved the commission’s initial $500,000 request, and added an extra $250,000. The commission plans to hire the extra full-time employees to help investigate cases, a process that takes place before the clemency board makes final decisions on felons’ petitions.

The board has the power to restore felons’ rights to own or possess a gun, grant full pardons, reduce fines and adjust sentences.

The board also has the authority to restore felons’ civil rights, which include the right to vote, run for office and serve on a jury.

The process of restoring voting rights has changed since Floridians overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that restored voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences. The amendment, which appeared on the November ballot as Amendment 4, excludes murderers and individuals convicted of felony sexual offenses.

But Corder said that passage of the amendment does not necessarily mean the clemency caseload will be dramatically diminished. The board still has to review petitions from felons seeking to have all of their civil rights restored, she said.

"Those applications remain in place, even with Amendment 4," Corder said. "Someone may still want to run for office or sit on a jury and we will review that."