On Friday, July 2, the Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, Charles Canady, entered an order officially creating Florida’s Innocence Commission. This is a wonderful development in criminal law in Florida. The order does not contain any particularly new information, but does highlight certain aspects of the Commission, particularly that the Commission will only review cases where innocence has been officially acknowledged in an effort to determine the causes of wrongful convictions.
The Commission is authorized to interview individuals involved with cases, review documents and essentially undertake whatever investigation is necessary to fulfill its mandate. The members of the Commission come from all over the state and at first glance seem to come from many different walks of life, hopefully bringing significant skill and determination to their posts.
As a former assistant public defender, I suggest that funding for Public Defender’s Offices is one of the first issues the Commission should look at. Attracting and keeping well qualified and concerned attorneys to indigent defense would be a major hurdle in the battle against wrongful conviction.
