By James Call
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-956486.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – The Speaker of the Florida House wants to revamp the state Supreme Court. James Call reports, this week the House will release a bill splitting the court into two panels: one for criminal cases, the other for civil.
The House is writing a proposed constitutional amendment that would create two, five-judge courts to replace the current seven justices. Speaker Cannon said the idea would unclog the civil dockets and make sure criminal justice is administered fairly and swiftly.
"More people are dying on death row due to natural causes than they are to lethal injection. So clearly there is an efficiency problem in the criminal side and we've heard, and you guys have covered it very amply, that there is a backlog on the civil side especially due to the foreclosure crisis. And if we can increase the bandwidth at the top, that may hopefully speed up things at the bottom."
Cannon has been critical of the Supreme Court for removing Legislatively proposed constitutional amendments from the Florida Ballot. House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders said with the current budget shortfall now is not the time to expand the number of judges.