TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday he sees no reason to conduct the kind of exhaustive review that led the former Illinois governor to clear his state's Death Row, even though Florida leads the nation in the number of Death Row inmates whose sentences have been overturned because of questions about guilt and innocence.

Bush's comments came as former Florida inmate Rudolph Holton -- freed Friday after 16 years on the row when prosecutors said they could no longer prove his guilt -- appeared at a news conference to condemn ''the system'' for taking a third of his life.

''I don't think it's necessary for our state,'' said Bush, referring to the study of Illinois death sentences that led former Gov. George Ryan to commute 167 sentences in his final days in office. ``We have a criminal justice system that protects the rights of these folks in an extraordinary way and continues to do so.''

Death penalty opponents renewed calls Monday for a Florida moratorium after Holton became the 23rd inmate in the state to walk off Death Row or be exonerated since 1973, and the fourth since Bush took office.

Illinois, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, is second nationally behind Florida with 13 exonerations since 1973. Ryan, a Republican, cleared the state's Death Row after conducting a thorough review that led him to question the fundamental fairness of capital punishment, largely out of the fear of executing an innocent person.

Holton, 49, was released after a Tampa prosecutor said he did not have any evidence for a new trial to tie him to the rape and murder of 17-year-old Katrina Graddy.

The Florida Supreme Court ordered the trial after witnesses who had testified against Holton recanted their testimony and defense lawyers learned Tampa police had failed to reveal that the victim had reported that she had been raped by another man 10 days before her murder.

Defense lawyers heard about the report years after Holton's 1986 conviction and filed a public records request for it in 1992 with the Tampa police.

As Holton waited in a six-by-nine-foot cell that would get so hot in the summer ''the walls would sweat,'' as he put it, it took the police nearly a decade to fill the request. In 2001, lawyers received the report that they believed pointed to a different suspect in the murder.

REVIEW PROCESS

Holton and his lawyers said Monday that given Holton's experience and that of other inmates before him, Bush should follow Ryan's lead.

Holton's lawyer, Linda McDermott -- who watched the Super Bowl Sunday with her client, the first time he had seen a color TV in 16 years -- said his case should be viewed by state leaders as ``an important step to meaningfully review the process.''

Holton and his lawyers also criticized Bush Monday for his proposal to phase out the state agency that represents Death Row inmates -- the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel -- and replace it with a registry of private lawyers.

Holton was represented by the counsel, as were the three other inmates who were exonerated or left Death Row in the past four years. Bush's critics worry that private lawyers who are not experts in death-sentence cases may not have the time or expertise to work aggressively for evidence that could clear a client, such as the Tampa police report.

''Anything that's good, it seems like the state's against it,'' Holton said. ``[Bush] wants to cut the funding and hire a bunch of jerks, and jerks don't know anything.''

SPEED UP APPEALS

But Bush, a staunch supporter of capital punishment, tried to turn Holton's case into an argument for speeding the death penalty appeals process, a change he has been pushing for years despite critics who say speeding it up could result in innocent people being executed.

''The fact that someone would have to wait 16 years is part of the problem,'' he said. ``This could have been found earlier.''

Bush said Monday he is considering asking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate how and why the witnesses who testified against Holton recanted their stories.

And he said he may pursue more ways to speed the appeals process.

But, he said, the system still guards against executing an innocent person.

''It concerns me if anyone's innocent in prison, not just Death Row,'' Bush said. ``But I can tell you of the people I have signed death warrants for, they've all been deserving of the toughest penalty.''

Holton said he expects no apology from the state. But he sniffled and cried, hugging his lawyer and saying how he can't replace the years lost in prison.

''There would be not enough money that could get me back my loss,'' he said. ``Six grandkids, I didn't get a chance to play with them or hold them. Nothing. Missed all that.''