Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R)
The eradication of the unanimous jury requirement for executions in Florida is a virtual certainty now that a bill allowing eight out of 12 jurors to vote to impose a death sentence is heading for Governor Ron DeSantis to signature.
The Florida Senate passed SB 450 on Thursday with a 29-10 vote that mostly went along party lines.
The legislative change was largely a reaction to the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people.
Much to DeSantis’ chagrin, Cruz was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“A juror shouldn’t be able to veto that,” DeSantis, a Republican, said at a news conference about Cruz narrowly avoiding the death penalty. “I don’t think justice has been served.”
In January, Rep. Berny Jacques (R-Seminole) and Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill) introduced identical bills to eliminate the requirement that jurors must vote unanimously before a conviction to death is pronounced.
The potential change to the unanimity requirement comes as Republicans in Florida are also trying to broaden the scope of the death penalty. Earlier in March, Sunshine State lawmakers introduced a bill that would allow not only murderers — as is currently the case — but also child rapists to be put to death for their crimes.
Changes to death penalty procedures are becoming a current trend: Idaho lawmakers recently opted to revive firing squads for executions that could not be carried out by lethal injection.
Florida’s bill striking down the requirement for a unanimous jury directly conflicts with US Supreme Court precedent, but the text of the bill states that this precedent was “ill-decided.”
As DeSantis prepares to sign the unanimous jury amendment, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) argues for an “automatic death penalty for school shooters.”
We need to consider an automatic death penalty for school shooters. Life in prison is not enough for the deranged monsters who enter our schools to kill innocent children and educators.
Pray for all who face the unimaginable in Nashville. This is horrible and needs to stop. https://t.co/PbCkJsSddE
—Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) March 27, 2023
Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg, responded to Scott’s suggestion in a series of tweets.
“As my daughter was murdered in the Parkland school shooting in Florida while you were governor, I am uniquely qualified to respond to your tweet,” Guttenberg began. “While I wanted the death penalty, it was as a punishment. It absolutely would not have been a deterrent.”
Guttenberg criticized Scott for “trying to distract from gun and gun failures”, and said Scott’s “unnecessary involvement” should result in “a death sentence for [his] political career.”
(1.3) As my daughter was murdered in the Parkland school shooting in Florida while you were Governor, I am uniquely qualified to respond to your tweet @SenRickScott. While I wanted the death penalty, it was as a punishment. It wouldn’t have been a deterrent at all. Reality https://t.co/iKcurtFncz
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) March 28, 2023
(2,3) is that most of these shooters expect to die, like today’s did. You actually understood the reality of gun safety after Parkland. The fact that you forget about that now and choose bullshit tweets like this just bothers you.
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) March 28, 2023
(3.3) Your unnecessary involvement now, trying to distract you from gun and gun chess, should bring a death sentence to your political career.
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) March 28, 2023
After Cruz’s sentencing, Guttenberg called the shooter a “monster” and said that “in prison, I hope and pray, he receives the kind of mercy from the prisoners that he showed my daughter and the 16 He’ll go to jail, and he’ll die in jail, and I’ll wait to read the news on it.
In the likely event DeSantis signs SB 450, Florida would join Alabama as the only two states allowing a judge to impose the death penalty on the recommendation of a non-unanimous jury.
The case may well turn into a legal dispute in the Supreme Court. Before 2016, Florida law allowed a judge to impose a death sentence on the recommendation of seven of 12 jurors. The Supreme Court, however, ruled 8 to 1 in 2016 that a death sentence based on a simple majority was unconstitutional. Only Judge Samuel Alito dissented in the case, finding that the Constitution did not require a jury to make specific findings authorizing the imposition of the death penalty.
Four justices who joined the majority in this case – Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer – no longer sit on the Court, a change that could give the current conservative judiciary a chance to rethink the legality of the decisions of the divided jury. on death sentences.
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