Innocence Commission completes its investigation.

Florida's flat fee schedule for paying conflict attorneys in criminal cases is a recipe for disaster, members of Florida's Innocence Commission said June 11 at its final meeting.

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The commission added PERRY five more recommendations to its final report. due to be submitted to the Supreme Court and legislative leaders by the end of June. Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Belvin Perry, chair of the commission, promised to deliver it in person.

The meeting had a fiscal flavor, as commission members deliberated how funding woes for state attorneys, public defenders, and other players in the criminal justice system can cause mistakes and wrongful convictions. They also called for a sterner response from the Bar's discipline process when bad conduct by a lawyer in a criminal trial results in a later reversal on appeal.

By the end of the meeting, the commission had approved five recommendations:

* Appellate courts should name in opinions lawyers whose serious misconduct results in a reversal in a criminal case. That passed 18-1.

* The Florida Bar should monitor trial and appellate rulings that cite attorney misconduct as the reason for reversing a case. That also passed 18-1.

* Underfunding the criminal justice system, including for state attorneys, public defenders, conflict counsel, assistant attorneys general, and others leads to mistakes including wrongful convictions. That passed unanimously.

* The Legislature should find new funds to help repay student loans for assistant PDs, assistant state attorneys, and other government lawyers involved in the criminal justice system. That passed unanimously.

* Payments for private conflict counsel should be based on a realistic assessment of the difficulty of a case, not the current flat fees which commission members said are inadequate. That passed unanimously.

Members debated what to suggest on conflict counsel compensation and finally rejected calling for a study--which some members said would likely kill any action--and instead voted to tell the Legislature the current scheme will cause problems. That includes a provision passed last year creating a second registry of private attorneys to handle criminal conflict cases and who will commit not to seek more than the statutory flat fee allowed for the case.

That schedule includes $2,500 for non-life felonies, $3,000 for felonies that carry a life sentence, and $15,000 for a death case.

"A friend of mine described that ... as a repeal of...