We live in a cold and callous world. This, from excite.com:
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Oddly Enough Updated 10:58 AM ET April 27, 1998
Betting on death row executions?
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida's governor ordered a probe into allegations that lawyers for death row inmates made $5 wagers on whether prisoners slated for death would be executed, a state spokeswoman says.
Gov. Lawton Chiles asked state investigators and the Florida Bar to determine the truth of allegations against attorneys in the Tampa office of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel (CCRC), the state agency that represents death row inmates, Chiles's spokeswoman April Herrle said.
Officials were trying to determine if lawyers began an office pool in March and took $5 wagers on the executions of Leo Jones, Gerald Stano, Judy Buenoano and Daniel Remeta, all of whom died in Florida's electric chair during a nine-day period in March.
"When the governor heard about this he was very concerned and he requested that the entities that have jurisdiction over the CCRCs to review the case," Herrle said. "If the allegations are true, this is outrageous behavior."
Chief Assistant Mike Reiter of the Tampa office said no money was collected or exchanged hands, a claim refuted by a private attorney working with Reiter who said she was there when the bets took place, officials said.
Roger Maas, executive director of the Commission on the Administration of Justice in Capital Cases, which oversees the CCRC offices, said Friday that he was in the middle of an investigation and would likely complete his work Monday. He would not comment on his preliminary findings.
Reiter and others have suggested that the incident was a harmless office joke gone awry, officials said.
"Office humor is one thing," Herrle said. "But if this is true, it was way over the bounds of appropriate, professional conduct." |
