Mixed signals on clemency harmful

TALLAHASSEE — It has now been more than a year since the people restored the right to vote to most felons under Amendment 4. But this is Florida, where progress on civil rights is excruciatingly slow.

The legal fight grinds on with no end in sight — and at a steep cost to taxpayers.

This is not justice. It is an affront to the more than 5 million voters who enacted historic civil rights reform and to the estimated 1.4 million felons who deserve to be voting citizens. Even a federal judge overseeing the controversy, Robert Hinkle, has accused the state of trying to “run out the clock” to block felons from voting in the upcoming presidential election.

To make matters worse, the state is sending mixed signals on the overarching question of whether felons must settle up all of their financial obligations before they can vote. The official state response appears to be yes and no.

First, to recap: After voters put Amendment 4 in the Constitution, the Legislature passed and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that defines all terms of a sentence to require full payment of fines, fees and restitution, unless it’s wiped away by a judge or converted to community service hours.

Civil rights groups, on behalf of a group of 17 felons, filed suit and won a limited victory from Hinkle. Rather than abide by the decision, the state appealed, keeping felons in legal limbo. Many registered to vote, even though they may still owe money. Others didn’t, out of fear or confusion.

In the courts, the state’s legal strategy, as directed by DeSantis, is that all terms of a sentence must be met before felons can cast ballots.

But as chairman of the four-member state clemency board that considers petitions from individual felons, DeSantis takes a more measured and humane approach and has expressed a willingness to compromise on payment requirements on a case-by-case basis.

Consider Christopher Taylor, 51, who appeared at a clemency hearing Dec. 4. The former Davie resident applied for a pardon, the highest form of clemency. He said his right to vote was restored in 2007 in a brief period of compassionate clemency under former Gov. Charlie Crist, whose reforms were quickly abolished by his successor, Rick Scott.

“Thirty years ago, I was a 21-year-old stupid kid,” Taylor said as he recalled a fateful trip to Fort Lauderdale to buy cocaine.

Convicted of drug trafficking, he served time in prison.

But as he told DeSantis and the three Cabinet members, he now works in the jewelry business after owning two electronics companies. He seeks a pardon because, as a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, crossing the border can be very difficult.

Taylor is a productive citizen, but he still owes the state $51,254 in unpaid fines. He claims the amount due has multiplied to six figures because a collection agency added sizable penalties. The details are all confidential under state law.

When Taylor said, “I don’t have that kind of money,” the governor told Taylor he’s willing to reduce the fine.

“I think you’ve made some strides and I’d be, you know, inclined to support a grant, but not with none of this having been satisfied,” DeSantis said. “So we’ll take it under advisement and see if we can come up with a path forward to be able to satisfy that and then go from there. And I’m not opposed to, sometimes there are fines that are too much. I’m not opposed to paring some back, but to pay nothing, I think, is a big problem.”

DeSantis holds out clemency as an option for those who can’t pay, but it’s a hopeless alternative when there are an estimated 430,000 felons who don’t have the money to pay their fees and fines.

It takes years for clemency petitions to be decided. The state is groaning under a backlog of more than 10,000 clemency cases, and they are considered only four times a year. At the Dec. 4 meeting, there were 70 cases on the agenda. Do the math. At that rate, it will take more than 30 years to eliminate the case backlog.

The governor, like his predecessors in both parties, has shown no willingness to seriously reduce the clemency backlog. If he did, he would, at a minimum, be demanding a lot more money to dispose of cases more quickly.

But the budget proposal he sent the Legislature last month seeks about $12 million next year for the Florida Commission on Offender Review, the state agency formerly known as the Parole Commission, which investigates felons who seek clemency. Under the DeSantis proposal, FCOR would have 132 employees, the same as it has now.

So it’s encouraging that DeSantis is willing to negotiate payment of fines and that he considers some fines excessive. But felons should not be compelled to wait years for their requests to be considered. That’s a cruel hoax that should not be perpetrated on the people any longer.

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Sergio Bustos, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.