THE LONG ROAD TO CLEMENCY:MANY FLORIDA FELONS WAIT YEARS FOR A CHANCE TO H

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Sun, Nov. 07, 2004

A HERALD INVESTIGATION | CIVIL RIGHTS


MANY FLORIDA FELONS WAIT YEARS FOR A CHANCE TO HAVE THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS RESTORED IN A CLEMENCY BOARD HEARING, THEN LOSE THEIR APPEALS

BY JASON GROTTO AND DEBBIE CENZIPER
[e-mail]


TALLAHASSEE - They file into the basement of the Capitol with speeches scribbled on scrap paper, dozens of Florida felons, coming to win back their civil rights.Most have waited years for this chance. Soon, it will all come down to this: three minutes at the microphone to appeal to four of the most influential men in the state.The most important is Gov. Jeb Bush, whose lone objection means instant denial, a trip home with nothing gained.

So they've skipped work and traveled long distances to be here. They've cleaned and pressed their Sunday best and asked friends, family, bosses and pastors to support them.

''I'm so nervous. I feel like I'm going to throw up,'' says David Crawford, who drove from Houston, a 700-mile, 12-hour road trip.Crawford is among tens of thousands of felons left with one shot at regaining civil rights -- a direct appeal to the Florida Clemency Board at a formal hearing.

Most felons need a hearing to get their rights back because they don't qualify for Florida's quicker, easier clemency process, called restoration of rights without a hearing. That process generally takes about a year.But in a state with the highest number of disenfranchised voters in the country, this last-chance option is mired in a backlog of cases that has quadrupled since Bush took office in 1999, a Herald investigation found.

The backlog soared as rules adopted by the Clemency Board under Bush excluded more than 85 percent of all felons from the faster process. That's more than 200,000 applications, the highest percentage of people in 16 years forced to appeal to the board if they want their rights restored.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/10119767.htm
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[Zhade]

1. That's fucking criminal. Jeb is going to get his one day.

He's violated too many people not to get one hell of a karmic retribution.

[Sugarbleus]

2. Fercrissakes, MY sstate doesn't disenfranchise ex felons

So far, our ex felons have to be finished with their time and off parole with no breeches--which is sometimes lengthy...that's it. No appeals shit, no signing anything. This is the way it should work across the country.

My sympathies for all those XF's out there who have been doing well yet still cannot participate in their own countries politics! What a cruel and unethical thing to do!