Representation - Florida Death Penalty

2. Representation

21. The Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team identified several problems concerning the representation of indigent capital defendants that leads to the arbitrary imposition of the death penalty and the problems effect all levels of representation. Indeed, the team considered defense counsel=s competence to be perhaps the most critical factor determining whether a capital offender/defendant will receive the death penalty. ABA Report on Florida at 135. See Furman, 408 U.S. at 256 n. 21 (whether counsel timely objected to error was on occasion a decisive arbitrary factor in whether a death sentence was imposed).