Bill Text: FL S1398 | 2010 | Regular Session | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Capital Collateral Regional Counsel [WPSC]

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2010-04-30 - Died in Committee on Criminal Justice [S1398 Detail]

Download: Florida-2010-S1398-Comm_Sub.html

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Florida Senate - 2010                             CS for SB 1398 
 
By the Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations; 
and Senator Crist 
604-03311-10                                          20101398c1 
1                        A bill to be entitled 
2         An act relating to Capital Collateral Regional 
3         Counsel; amending s. 27.701, F.S.; requiring that the 
4         Governor appoint each capital collateral regional 
5         counsel to a term of 4 years; removing a provision 
6         that prohibited a person appointed as a capital 
7         collateral regional counsel from running for or 
8         accepting an appointment to any state office for a 
9         specified period after leaving that office; providing 
10         an effective date. 
11 
12  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 
13 
14         Section 1. Section 27.701, Florida Statutes, is amended to 
15  read: 
16         27.701 Capital collateral regional counsel.— 
17         (1) There are created three regional offices of capital 
18  collateral counsel, which shall be located in a northern, 
19  middle, and southern region of the state. The northern region 
20  shall consist of the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Eighth, and 
21  Fourteenth Judicial Circuits; the middle region shall consist of 
22  the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, 
23  and Eighteenth Judicial Circuits; and the southern region shall 
24  consist of the Eleventh, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, 
25  Nineteenth, and Twentieth Judicial Circuits. Each regional 
26  office shall be administered by a regional counsel. A regional 
27  counsel must be, and must have been for the preceding 5 years, a 
28  member in good standing of The Florida Bar or a similar 
29  organization in another state. Each capital collateral regional 
30  counsel shall be appointed by the Governor, and is subject to 
31  confirmation by the Senate. The Supreme Court Judicial 
32  Nominating Commission shall recommend to the Governor three 
33  qualified candidates for each appointment as regional counsel. 
34  The Governor shall appoint a regional counsel for each region 
35  from among the recommendations, or, if it is in the best 
36  interest of the fair administration of justice in capital cases, 
37  the Governor may reject the nominations and request submission 
38  of three new nominees by the Supreme Court Judicial Nominating 
39  Commission. Each capital collateral regional counsel shall be 
40  appointed to a term of 4 3 years. Vacancies in the office of 
41  capital collateral regional counsel shall be filled in the same 
42  manner as appointments. A person appointed as a regional counsel 
43  may not run for or accept appointment to any state office for 2 
44  years following vacation of office. 
45         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2010.