O
n Tuesday night, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic challenger Charlie Crist squared off in their third and final debate.
One of the debate’s most heated moments came during a discussion about the execution of Marshall Lee Gore. A convicted rapist and murderer, Gore was put to death Oct. 1, 2013.
Gore’s execution was originally supposed to take place in June of that year. However, legal concerns over Gore’s sanity resulted in Scott postponing the execution until Sept. 10.
After the date in September was chosen, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi requested that Scott postpone the execution once again. The reason for Bondi’s request? According to the Tampa Bay Times, the date of the execution conflicted with Bondi’s “’hometown campaign kickoff’ at her South Tampa home.”
Bondi apologized afterward for the postponement request, saying she “absolutely should not have requested that the date of the execution be moved.”
Ironically, Bondi has been one of the strongest supporters of Florida’s Timely Justice Act, which aims to ensure speedy executions for Florida death row inmates. Apparently, timely justice is critically important unless Bondi finds it politically inconvenient. During the debate on Tuesday, Crist pressed Scott about whether he knew Bondi’s reason for requesting the execution be postponed.
“She asked me to delay it because it didn’t work on the dates that she thought it was going to be on,” Scott responded. “She apologized.”
Scott claims he did not know the reason for the delay. This leaves two possibilities. The first is that the governor is lying and did, in fact, know that Bondi wanted the execution postponed so she could hold her fundraiser. The second — and equally damning — possibility is the governor simply postponed the execution without being given a good reason. Such carelessness in matters of life and death is inexcusable from someone who wants to lead our state for another four years.
The controversy over the Gore execution is very similar to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s “Bridgegate” scandal. As a brief reminder, this scandal unfolded after revelations that Christie’s political aides intentionally caused roadblocks and traffic delays on the George Washington Bridge as retaliation against one of Christie’s political opponents. Christie continues to claim he had no knowledge of his staffers’ actions.
Both “Bridgegate” and the Gore controversy demonstrate governors who are either actively involved in unethical and inappropriate political scheming or are simply ignorant of misconduct occurring right under their noses. However, because the Gore incident involved playing political games with a human life, Scott and Bondi’s malfeasance is far more despicable.
Florida needs leaders who demonstrate a clear and unwavering commitment to serving its citizens’ best interests. The mishandling of the Gore case is just the latest evidence that Scott and Bondi are not those leaders.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 10/23/2014]
