TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- It will nag at state Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan long after he retires at the end of the year: He believes Florida may have killed two or three innocent people during his tenure.
"To take the life of an innocent person is indeed the most tragic thing that we can do," Kogan said.Kogan recently told The Associated Press he has "grave doubts" as to the guilt of two or three of those executed -- and in other cases he felt the convicts were treated unfairly in the system.
Since the state resumed capital punishment in the 1970s, after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a four-year moratorium on executions, Florida has executed 43 people. Twenty-five of those died in the electric chair during Kogan's 12-year tenure.
Kogan, 65, has long believed capital punishment is no deterrent.
Kogan wouldn't say which condemned inmates he believed were innocent. He said he voted to stop the executions, but couldn't get a majority of the other justices to agree. No justice holds veto power over the others.
"You don't need a unanimous decision. Only a 4-3," he says.
Kogan previously worked as a prosecutor, defense attorney and trial judge in Miami. He estimated he's handled some 1,200 capital cases.
As a prosecutor, Kogan visited murder scenes, worked with victims' families and asked juries to recommend death sentences.
However, he said he has long held that capital punishment doesn't work, though execution may be warranted in some cases. And since DNA evidence began making a difference in the last 10 years or so, 53 people across the nation have been released from death row, Kogan said.
"But how about before we could rely upon DNA?" he asked. "What happened to those people?"