Voters sent an overwhelming message two months ago that they favor broadening capital punishment in the Sunshine State to include executing teenage murder convicts. The proposed constitutional amendment won 70 percent approval in the Nov. 5 general election, the second time in four years Florida voters have affirmed their support of the death penalty.

Moreover, Gov. Jeb Bush is pushing to close the state-run legal offices in Florida that handle death penalty appeals for all convicted murderers sentenced to death as part of a cost-cutting move. Bush proposes replacing them with contracted appeals lawyers, drawing criticism from death penalty opponents but scarce reaction elsewhere.

But the case of Rudolph Holton, who was freed from prison Friday after spending 16 years on death row for a 1986 Tampa murder he insists he didn't commit, is rekindling the debate.

Nationally, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan brought the issue back into the spotlight this month when he commuted the death sentences of every condemned convict in that state on his last day in office because of growing concern over the fairness of a criminal justice system that typically sends only the poor to death row.

The likelihood of lawmakers, or Bush for that matter, following suit is remote.

Bush, through a spokeswoman, said Friday that he is troubled by various aspects of the Holton case, particularly the reasons witnesses have now changed their stories.

``The governor's office is considering whether an investigation is warranted related to the conditions under which the witnesses recanted their trial testimony,'' Bush spokeswoman Elizabeth Hirst said.

State Sen. Victor Crist, a Republican from Tampa who helped draft the ballot measure voters approved Nov. 5, said Friday that the fact that 25 convicted murderers have been freed from death row in Florida since capital punishment was reinstated should serve as evidence that the state's commitment to effective legal representation is working.

``The bottom line is there hasn't been anyone found innocent on death row,'' Crist said. ``There have been people released on [legal] technicalities.''

The problem, he said, is that it takes too long for appeals to work their way through the courts and that it's ``virtually impossible'' for prosecutors to come back 16 to 20 years later when a new trial is ordered and present a solid case.

Advocates of abolishing the death penalty, however, argue it would be impossible to craft a legal system in which everyone - particularly the poor who must rely on public defenders - gets a fair trial.

``The fact that an innocent person gets saved from execution shouldn't be taken as evidence that the system worked,'' said Bruce Shapiro, a professor at Yale University and co-author of a book examining the death penalty's flaws. ``In the Holton case, as in many others, there are multiple failures in the system and you have to be crazy to feel secure that we haven't missed such errors in other cases.''

David Wasson can be reached at (850) 222-8382.