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Miami Herald, Oct. 31, 2004

CLEMENCY BOARD
200,000 rights applications rejected since '99
Gov. Jeb Bush says he has restored the rights of 48,000 felons since he took office. But more people than ever are asking for clemency.

BY JASON GROTTO AND DEBBIE CENZIPER
jgrotto@herald.com

Florida's Clemency Board has rejected more than 200,000 civil rights applications since Gov. Jeb Bush took office in 1999, the highest rejection rate in at least 16 years, a Herald investigation has found.

Bush, head of the board, said he has made improvements since the state fought and lost a 2001 lawsuit that exposed widespread errors in the clemency process.

''I believe in personal redemption, that people can learn from their mistakes, and that people who take those lessons to heart and apply them to their lives deserve a second chance,'' Bush recently wrote to The Herald.

He says more felons than ever are regaining their rights, 48,000 in the last six years.

But more felons than ever are applying as well. The Clemency Board under Bush has received twice as many applications as it did under Republican Gov. Bob Martinez or Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles.

Before the 2000 presidential election, Florida's system for restoring civil rights to felons attracted little attention. Each year, tens of thousands of felons petitioned the Clemency Board in obscurity.

Then Florida decided the contentious 2000 election by only 537 votes. And Jeb Bush, the brother of a presidential candidate, had more say than anyone on whether tens of thousands of people could vote in a deeply divided swing state.

Suddenly, the state's clemency system was thrust into the national spotlight.

''We have a different issue in the mix now that was never really there before, the issue of voting,'' said former Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Democrat who spent 16 years on the board.

Butterworth admits that he was, at times, one of the toughest members of the board, especially when crime rates were high in Florida. He said he didn't want to be attacked for being soft on crime.

In 2000, he was on the board when it put into place some of the most restrictive rules ever. At the time, there were two Democrats on the board and five Republicans, including former Secretary of State Katherine Harris.

That same year, the year of the presidential election, the board restored voting rights to barely 1,000 people, the fewest in at least 25 years.

The board also objected to more than 1,200 applicants who were fully qualified under its own rules that year. In fact, it rejected more qualified civil rights applicants in 2000 than it approved.

The board receives lists of all eligible felons and their crimes. If the governor or two or more other members object, the application is denied. By law, no explanation is required.

There were so many objections that board member Tom Gallagher chided his colleagues.

''If you're going to basically [object] to the entire list, then . . . you ought to at least have a reason,'' said Gallagher, Florida's chief financial officer.

Although the voting records of elected officials are public, clemency objections are secret and protected by Florida statutes. The board need not say why applicants are rejected.

Critics say the secrecy of the process, coupled with Florida's highly charged partisan atmosphere, raises concerns about whether decisions are influenced by politics. Since 2000, Florida gained two electoral votes and now controls one-tenth of the number needed to elect a president.

''Provisional ballots, manual recounts, even the hypertechnical interpretation of voter registrations laws -- I'm not sure politics influences the bulk of those issues,'' said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. ``But I do think there are people whose rights are being held hostage by considerations that are infected or polluted by darker, partisan motives.''

Bush vigorously denies those claims. In an e-mail to The Herald, he said the suggestion that the clemency process is partisan is ''not only inaccurate, it's offensive'' and ``presupposes the majority of Florida felons are of a specific . . . party affiliation.''

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