Governor Charlie Crist recently signed two death warrants for prisoners on Florida's death row. One, Paul Beasley Johnson, had his execution suspended by the Florida Supreme Court because he showed that the prosecutor had committed misconduct during his trial. The Supreme Court of Florida was VERY CRITICAL of what the prosecutor had done. But the other prisoner, Martin Grossman, had a very similar situation in his case, which took place in 1985 when he was a teen-ager. He had been sentenced to death after a fellow prisoner was commissioned by the prosecutor to get information from him, and that other prisoner had his charges dropped to reward him for his work. He admitted years later (and swore under oath in an affiadvit) that he had perjured himself at the trial on an essential point -- going to MOTIVATION -- to get his reward from the prosecutor in helping to send Martin Grossman to his death.

Religious authorities all over the United States, law professors, business persons from all walks of life, citizens from all over the country, 21,000 signatories on an Internet petition, friends and financial donors, etc., have all asked Crist for a 60-day stay so a petition for clemency can be filed on Grossman's behalf. He refuses and refuses and refuses and in the face of this inexplicable refusal, there is no real organized opposition to the request. Ultimately, the clemency petition itself will only ask for "life without parole" for this prisoner; he is not trying to get out of prison. His sentence shows enormous disparity with other death sentences.

What gives? Does anybody know why the Governor would be so "dead set" against a 60-day stay, after 25 years on death row? I just don't get it.

Thanks.
Check out by googling "Martin Grossman" or go to
www.savemartinslife.org

In general, these days, when I try to answer a question that starts with "why" and ends with something that defies logic, the answer always come from the general "follow the dollar" or "whose job is at stake?" Sadly, sometimes it comes down to answering the question with another question, "how much more paperwork, and how many more press conferences are involved in admitting wrong here?"

After briefly familiarizing myself with two cases, Martin Grossman's and Paul Johnson's, if only one of them was to have their execution stayed, it would have been Grossman by my figuring. I'm guessing that the answer to your question of "why" also has a little of that "life is all about timing." I realize this is quite general, but it might be as simple as saying that Johnson got his execution stayed, and Governor Crist can't bring more negative attention to the prosecutor and the Florida courts or government right now. You only get one red flag per year or something.

Comparing the two cases, there's a big difference between killing three people after saying to friends "...even if I have to shoot someone" and killing one person in a frenzied, unforeseen struggle. There were drugs involved in both cases, but there was identifiable malicious intent in one of the cases.

Save Martin Grossman.

Of course you're right.

When I began to research Charlie Crist, just like that, with his name and "Florida" and "Governor" and just read and read and read, I came up with some weird impressions, and I have no conclusions yet but here are some uncomfortable "wonderings" that I ran into:

1. Crist has special connections to the prosecutor in Pinnellas County. That prosecutor is the one who more or less bribed the jail trustee to get info from Martin Grossman while he awaited trial. Later he filed an affidavit saying that (a) he had absolutely no recollection of hearing, from Martin, the crucial information that he killed the officer because he "didn't want to be arrested by a woman"; and (b) that he got "paid" for his testimony by having his own charges dropped. When the courts allegedly looked into that claim, they looked like this: "Oh he's making a claim? Get rid of it somehow."

2. Crist is a person who has very little on his resume that would have ever recommended him to be attorney general of Florida, yet he became attorney general (after becoming Commissioner of education I believe). He's actually in a sort of conflict position with respect to this case, inasmuch as the AG represented the state AGAINST Grossman during his years on death row.

3. Crist came from nowhere and looks like he's going nowhere. Perhaps behind that handsomeness and that tan, he's a resentful wannabe. He's got the power of life and death now, over someone else who has no power. I think if Crist were a man of substance he would grant the stay, but too often, people rise to heights such as his without substance.

Anybody, with other ideas, tell me more.
Thank you.