“I felt like I was going in to see Hannibal Lector.”

– What local death penalty mitigation specialist Rosalie Bolin told the LA Times she was thinking the first time she went to see the man who would later become her husband, Death Row inmate Oscar Ray Bolin – a man convicted of the brutal rape and murders of three women.

Rosalie Bolin, who was recently hired by 4^th District Public Defender Matt Shirk, eventually gave up her $375,000 home, her Mercedes 300, her marriage to prominent criminal defense attorney Victor Martinez and her four children in order to marry Bolin. She quit the Hillsborough County’s public defender’s office under pressure, after jail officials suggested she’d had sex with Bolin in his cell. For a link to the eye-opening LA Times story, click here.

To read how the Florida Times-Union completely soft-shoes the hire and glosses over Rosalie Bolin’s past, click here.

– Anne Schindler