Feb 11, 2000
(ran SS edition of METRO & STATE) An inmate facing a federal death penalty will be moved from a Hillsborough County jail to a Pinellas County jail to resolve a dispute over his defense team's access to him. On its surface, the debate involves a Hillsborough Sheriff's Office rule that only state-licensed professionals can have unaccompanied, face-to-face visits with jail inmates.
But lurking in the background is the access once enjoyed by Rosalie Martinez, the defense team member who in 1996 married convicted serial murderer Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. The wedding, broadcast on ABC's 20/20, prompted cries of outrage and even a proposed ban on death row marriages.
Without using names, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Lazzara seemed to invoke that tryst in heated comments to a sheriff's lawyer who argued Thursday morning that the access dispute was about jail security. "There was that little incident that happened several years ago that I'm sure embarrassed a lot of people," Lazzara said. "And I don't pretend to be the smartest guy in the world, but there is no question that that's the only reason I'm having this problem here." The inmate at the center of the dispute Wednesday, 25-year-old Louis Clemente, is charged with ordering the murders of two Wauchula brothers he owed $35,000 in a drug deal. His trial is expected to start next month.
One of Clemente's lawyers, Brian Donerly, represented Oscar Bolin. "It's a matter of public record that I represented Oscar Bolin, and that Ms. Martinez is married to Mr. Bolin," he said. He would not speculate on the reasons why the access rules in Hillsborough are stricter than in Pinellas. Sheriff's Col. David Parrish, who has run Hillsborough's jails for nearly 20 years, said the Bolin visits violated longstanding policy that dates back to at least the mid-1980s. For security reasons, he said, only licensed people such as lawyers and private investigators can have face-to- face contact with prisoners. Others have to visit through glass windows, or by telephone or electronic hookups.
The Bolin-Martinez case was one "where staff didn't necessarily follow policy, and they allowed her to have contact when she should not have," Parrish said. The aide trying to visit Clemente is a mitigation specialist, a court- appointed researcher for the defense who works closely with a death penalty defendant to obtain personal information about family, childhood and legal histories. The work can involve the exchanging of documents and highly personal conversations. Clemente is accused of operating a drug network that moved methamphetamine to Dade City and other Central Florida locations. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, reserved for federal defendants convicted of the most serious drug and racketeering offenses. From the bench Thursday, Judge Lazzara said he wasn't inclined to second-guess Hillsborough Sheriff Cal Henderson, adding, "I've got a great deal of respect for him, the way he runs things." Nevertheless, Lazzara said, because death penalty cases are scrutinized and re-scrutinized for legal error, he has to provide the defense whatever legal leeway it needed to do its job.-
