Advertisement

Editorial: Bernie McCabe stands up for justice

 
In advocating for Timothy Kane’s release, Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe, above, judiciously used his position to effect justice in a different form. Well done.
In advocating for Timothy Kane’s release, Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe, above, judiciously used his position to effect justice in a different form. Well done.
Published Sept. 29, 2016

Bernie McCabe, the longtime state attorney for Pinellas and Pasco counties, has been to a lot of parole hearings, always to argue for keeping inmates in prison. But in Timothy Kane, a Pasco man imprisoned for life at age 14, he saw an exceptional case that prompted him to take an exceptional step. In advocating for Kane's release, McCabe judiciously used his position to effect justice in a different form. Well done.

The circumstances of Kane's crime are abhorrent. He and two other teenagers conspired to burglarize a house in Hudson, in northwest Pasco County. When they found the occupants — an elderly woman and her adult son — at home, one teen fired a sawed-off shotgun into the man's neck and another stabbed the woman to death. Before they fled on their bicycles, they chopped off the man's little finger to show off to friends. McCabe, the chief assistant state attorney at the time of the crime, remembered all those details. He did not remember Kane.

The youngest of the three burglars, Kane was in the house during the murders but did not participate. While the other teens, ages 19 and 17, committed those gruesome acts, Kane hid in the kitchen. When sheriff's detectives interviewed him, he admitted taking part in the burglary, effectively sealing his own fate. Under Florida law, a person who takes part in a felony in which a person is killed — even if he didn't do the killing — can also be found guilty of murder. The state charged Kane as an adult, the young teen was convicted and under the only sentence available in 1992, he was sent to prison for life with eligibility for parole after 25 years.

Court rulings since then would make such a sentence unlikely today. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that juveniles cannot be given automatic life terms. The Florida Supreme Court, in turn, found that the state's parole system frequently created no meaningful chance for release and ordered that the cases of hundreds of youthful offenders be reviewed for resentencing. The new legal opinions reflect thinking that has evolved since the 1990s. Juvenile offenders, the courts now say, must be treated differently from adults. In teenagers, the part of the brain that guides logical decisionmaking isn't fully developed. Holding them culpable for crimes the same as adults amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

Kane, now 38, has been in prison for 24 years. He has passed the GED test, passed numerous prison courses, earned certification in automotive repair and never had a single disciplinary report. McCabe learned all this when he reviewed the case early this year, after reading about it in the Tampa Bay Times. He did not second-guess his office's handling of the case. Charging Kane as an adult, he said, was the right call. But he couldn't understand why Kane's lawyer didn't seek a plea deal that could have rehabilitated the teen and spared him a lifetime behind bars. And given Kane's record in prison, McCabe thought he'd served long enough. He told all this Wednesday to the Florida Commission on Offender review, which then set a parole date for Kane for February. Given Florida's ungenerous record in parole and clemency petitions, Kane's good fortune is striking — and hard to imagine happening without the backing of the state attorney who prosecuted him.

Spend your days with Hayes

Spend your days with Hayes

Subscribe to our free Stephinitely newsletter

Columnist Stephanie Hayes will share thoughts, feelings and funny business with you every Monday.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

Bernie McCabe, who automatically won another four-year term this year when he was unopposed, is not a prosecutor to whom a "soft on crime" label would ever stick. He never before had appeared at a parole hearing in favor of the convicted. He deserves credit for recognizing the nuance of Kane's case — a young defendant who became a sideline player in a horrific crime — and taking action. As McCabe put it, he "did what he could do," which it turns out was a lot.