That was one of several questions that state Rep. Bruce Kyle, who chairs the House Judiciary Council, sent in a letter to Chief Justice Barbara Pariente.

The Florida Supreme Court is required by law to make sure death row inmates get "quality representation," Kyle wrote last week. He asked what the court has done to carry that out.

"Definitely there's conflicting evidence on whether or not there's a problem and we'll see if the Supreme Court gives me names, we'll see if there's a problem," Kyle said Tuesday. "If they don't, then it would seem to me that it's just rhetoric."

Justice Raoul Cantero recently criticized the performance of some of the private attorneys who contract with the state to represent death row lawyers. The attorneys are generally referred to as "registry" counsel because they are put on a state list or registry of private attorneys interested in handling capital cases.

"Some of the worst lawyering I've seen is from some of the registry counsel, unfortunately," Cantero told the Commission on Capital Cases, an oversight board set up by the Legislature to monitor death row appeals, adding that some have little or no experience in death penalty cases.

"They have not raised the right issues from our review of the record," Cantero told the panel, which includes lawmakers and judges, during its January meeting. "Sometimes they raise too many issues and still they haven't raised the right one."

But earlier this month, Kyle's committee heard testimony from state attorneys who handle capital appeals. Those lawyers said they had not seen any problems in the registry lawyers they had worked with.

Kyle said he hadn't heard back from the court, which he described as "the final arbiter of who can even practice law."

Kyle said he didn't know if the House would do anything on the issue.

Craig Waters, a spokesman for the state's high court, said justices were not giving interviews on the subject of death row lawyers.

Florida has 368 people on death row. For the most part they are represented by lawyers who are employed by the state and work for one of two regional agencies.

But the state also has a registry of private attorneys who handle cases in the northern part of the state and when there's a conflict of interest elsewhere.

Until two years ago, there were three regional agencies and they covered the entire state. But the Legislature abolished the northern office because of arguments that registry attorneys could get the job done more cheaply.

There are 140 attorneys on the registry; 80 have cases.

AP-ES-03-22-05 1738EST