PINE COFFIN

ERNEST MILLER AND BILL JENT

Yesterday, I was looking through a stack of storage boxes trying to find a document to help me get a building permit when I came across a newspaper article from 1988.  I was a lawyer representing Florida Death Row inmates Ernie Miller and Bill Jent and the article reminded me how much power our government has and how easy it is to have our freedom taken from us.  Miller and Jent were convicted of a heinous murder in Pasco County, Florida.  They always professed their innocence but a jury didn't take long to find them guilty.  I was part of a pro bono defense team that represented both death row inmates in a series of appeals.  Finally, the Federal Court for the Middle District of Florida considered the problems with the conviction and ordered a new trial...this new trial came after many years on death row.  We traveled to Starke, Florida, home of Old Sparky, the infamous electric chair Florida used to carry out death sentences, and visited our clients on death row to prepare for a new trial a number of times.  We uncovered testimony that proved evidence was planted by law enforcement and a number of other positive bits and pieces that would be of great benefit in a trial.  Ultimately, the State of Florida negotiated a deal.  Miller and Jent would plead guilty to second degree murder and the sentence would be for time served and they would go free.  Miller and Jent hated the idea of pleading guilty to a crime they didn't commit but decided it was better to be free and frustrated then to roll the dice with another trial in Pasco County.  So the deal was accepted and immediately afterwards, both client's said they were innocent, as did some of the members of the defense team.  I faced the tv cameras and the newspaper reporters and simply said, "Departure from death row in anything but a pine coffin is extraordinary"....I still believe that...