A man just weeks from execution is asking the Florida Supreme Court to force state agencies to turn over records he says he needs to file a last-ditch appeal, setting up a legal showdown over what information condemned inmates can access before they die.
Chadwick Willacy, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on April 21, filed an emergency petition with the state’s highest court late Wednesday, arguing that a lower court’s decision to deny his public records requests has left him in an impossible spot.
Willacy’s attorneys say they’ve been trying to get their hands on certain records since early March, before Governor Ron DeSantis even signed his death warrant. The requests targeted things like lethal injection logs from the Florida Department of Corrections and communications between state agencies in the days leading up to the warrant being signed.
But on March 23, Brevard County Circuit Judge Kathryn Speicher denied the requests, siding with objections raised by the state. Then, on Wednesday, she denied a rehearing and refused to look at the records herself to decide what, if anything, should be turned over.
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Now Willacy’s lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to step in, arguing that appealing the denial after the fact does nothing when the clock is ticking. In a reply filed Thursday morning, they said a regular appeal would be useless because the deadline to file a new postconviction motion has already passed.
“Appealing the denial after the time has lapsed and proceedings have concluded in circuit court affords Willacy absolutely no remedy,” his attorneys wrote. “Willacy has attempted to file his writ before the deadline for the successive motion but will not make the useless attempt to file a motion without the needed records.”
The case has drawn attention because of a warning from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor just last month in a similar Florida case. She wrote that the state’s courts appear to be placing death row inmates in a “Catch-22” by denying records requests because the prisoners don’t yet have enough information to raise a claim, when the whole reason they’re asking for the records is to get that information.
Willacy’s lawyers are pointing to that same problem here. They say the records they’re asking for would help support an Eighth Amendment claim about how the state carries out executions. They also note that in another recent case, records turned over in Frank Walls’ federal lawsuit suggested possible problems with how the state administers lethal injection.
At a hearing Monday, Willacy’s attorneys argued the records they’re seeking are a matter of public record and that the state’s objections are just a way to keep them from getting information they’re legally entitled to.
Joshua Chaykin, one of Willacy’s lawyers, told Judge Speicher that the communications between agencies after the initial records request was filed on March 6 would show whether state officials were strategizing to treat the request differently because a warrant was about to be signed.
“The colorable claim is that the agencies are strategizing to prevent Mr. Willacy’s access to public records by reframing his pre-warrant public records request as a post-warrant public records request in order to add additional requirements,” Chaykin said during the hearing.
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The state pushed back hard. Attorneys for the governor’s office said the records Willacy wants are protected because they involve clemency decisions, which the governor has complete discretion over. They argued that a court ordering those records released would violate the separation of powers.
Michael Mervine, with the attorney general’s office, told the judge that Willacy’s request wasn’t tied to any legitimate claim.
“Under Rule 3.852 there has to be a colorable claim for postconviction relief asserted in order to be entitled to these records. Here, there is none,” Mervine said. “What the demand seeks is the ability to explore whether such a colorable claim exists. That’s not proper.”
The state also noted that Willacy waited until the final minutes of the Wednesday deadline to file his mandamus petition with the Supreme Court, then filed a motion for an extension of time in circuit court just 37 seconds before the 4 p.m. cutoff. Judge Speicher denied that extension Thursday morning, ordering Willacy to file his postconviction motion by 2 p.m. that same day.
Willacy’s legal team says the state’s accusation that they’re trying to delay is baseless. They point out they filed their first records request before the warrant was even signed, and they’re now just trying to get the information they need to file a motion that has any chance of succeeding.
In their reply to the Supreme Court, they quoted Sotomayor’s statement directly: “The Florida Supreme Court appears to be placing prisoners in a Catch-22: It has affirmed the denial of requests for records on these issues, at least in part, because the prisoners do not yet have enough information to raise a ‘colorable’ Eighth Amendment claim. The very reason the prisoners are seeking the records, however, is to gather enough information to raise a colorable Eighth Amendment claim.”
Willacy’s execution is set for April 21. The Florida Supreme Court has not yet ruled on his petition.
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