The ratio is staggering, a number that should give everyone pause.

For roughly every two people executed in Florida, one person is released from Death Row.

Over the past 30 years, 54 inmates have been put to death and 25 have been released. That should be a pretty clear signal something is seriously wrong with our death-penalty system.

Rudolph Holton is merely the latest example. He spent 16 years on Death Row for a crime he might not have committed. When he walked out of Union Correctional Institution last Friday, he became the fourth condemned person in the past three years whose conviction no longer passed legal muster.

Frank Lee Smith was exonerated by DNA evidence in December 2000, 11 months after he died of cancer on Death Row. Juan Melendez was released last year when prosecutors declined to retry him after new evidence surfaced.

Which only makes you wonder how many of the 365 remaining "killers" on Death Row might not actually be killers. Or if any of those already executed might have been terminated in error.

"There's a problem," said state Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell, D-Tamarac, a member of the state Commission on Capital Cases.

"The system's not accurate or fair," Melendez said last October outside Florida State Prison, where he protested an execution. Melendez had spent 19 years on Death Row.

This is the point where Gov. Jeb Bush, if he had any common decency or common sense, would declare a moratorium on capital punishment while he convenes an expert panel to re-examine the system.

Instead, he talks about increasing its "efficiency" (translation: more executions with fewer delays), proposes eliminating the state agency that represents Death Row inmates, and tries to downplay the Holton case as an isolated incident.

Isn't that what he initially said about Rilya Wilson, the missing foster child who was just the tip of the DCF iceberg?

"I'm not too sure it's an isolated incident when you're talking about 25 people over 30 years," Campbell said. "But at this point I don't see anybody doing anything about it. On an issue like this, it really has to come from the governor's level."

I'm not asking for Bush to completely follow the lead of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, the Republican who emptied his state's Death Row after a damning review, commuting 167 sentences to life imprisonment on the last day of his term.

But it would be nice if Bush at least acknowledged there's something askew, showed a little curiosity and skepticism, and looked into the situation. Instead, he arrogantly proclaims that the system works and says he'd never execute an innocent person.

"People are in denial," said Raag Singhal, a Fort Lauderdale defense attorney who has handled death-penalty cases.

In Illinois, it took much less to spur Ryan to action. In 2000, after 13 Death Row inmates had been released over 25 years, Ryan halted executions and formed a 14-person panel to review how the death penalty could be applied in a fair, accurate and just manner. After three years, the committee issued a scathing report with 85 recommendations. Ryan thought the best way of fixing the system was by starting over.

"Even though we have just as many problems as Illinois, there's no movement afoot to study the situation," Singhal said. "It seems like Bush is taking exactly the opposite approach, making a concerted effort to weaken the quality of lawyers who'll handle these capital cases. It disturbs me."

As part of his proposed budget, Bush wants to eliminate the Capital Collateral Regional Counsels, full-time state lawyers who represent Death Row inmates. The work would be parceled out to private firms that might not put similar time or effort into the cases.

To do so at this time, with the legitimacy and accuracy of Florida's death penalty system in reasonable doubt, would be an outrage.

Michael Mayo's column is published Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. He can be reached at mmayo@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4508.