Zack Warrant: Scheduling Order
Shortly after Gov. DeSantis signed the warrant, the Florida Supreme Court issued a Scheduling Order for litigation related to Zack’s scheduled execution. Here's an analysis of the Scheduling Order.
Yesterday, Gov. DeSantis signed the sixth death warrant of 2023 in the State of Florida, scheduling Michael Zack’s execution for October 3 at 6:00 p.m. The warrant period (47 days) is a bit longer than the prior warrants. (The full background on Zack’s case is available here.)
Shortly after Gov. DeSantis signed the warrant, the Florida Supreme Court issued a Scheduling Order for litigation related to Zack’s scheduled execution:
Zack’s warrant period is the longest so far this year:
Dillbeck: 31 days
Gaskin: 30 days
Barwick: 29 days
Owen: 37 days
Barnes: 42 days
Zack: 47 days
Despite the longer warrant period, the Scheduling Order does not vary much from the Scheduling Orders in the other cases.
*The timeframes used for Owen are from the Florida Supreme Court’s initial Scheduling Order. The Court’s Scheduling Order on Owen’s 3.811 claims was issued well into the warrant period and, therefore, would not be a fair comparison to the others.
Here’s the analysis:
The Order allows 15 days from yesterday (when the warrant was issued) for the circuit court to complete proceedings. That is the same time period that was given in Dillbeck’s case but longer than the other four cases.
The Order allows 6 days between the Notice of Appeal and Initial Brief, which is the longest period so far.
The Order provides for 2 days between the Initial Brief and the Answer Brief, which is the same for 4 of the other 5 cases. There were only 3 days in Dillbeck’s case.
The Order provides for 2 days between the Answer Brief and the Reply Brief, which is the same as Barnes’s case. In Owen’s case, there were 4 days. For the first three warrants, there was only 1 day.
Between the close of briefing at the Florida Supreme Court and the scheduled execution, there’s 18 days. This is the second-longest, following Barnes’s case, in which this time was 20 days.
My thoughts are with everyone involved in the warrant and execution process.