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Thread: Florida Capital Punishment News

  1. #411
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    DeSantis proposes death penalty for certain sex crimes, increased punishment for fentanyl

    The governor, who is widely expected to be eyeing the presidency, raised several tough-on-crime proposals.

    By Tess Riski
    The Miami Herald

    MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a tough-on-crime agenda ahead of the upcoming legislative session, including proposals to expand the death penalty to certain types of sex crimes and mandating life sentences for people convicted of selling fentanyl that looks like candy to children.

    “We want to make sure that we cement our reputation as being a law-and-order state and take actions as necessary to help further protect the people of the state of Florida,” he said during a news conference Thursday at the Miami Police Benevolent Association hall. Police officers from several Miami-Dade cities, including Hialeah and Coral Gables, were in the audience.

    The governor, reiterating comments he made earlier this week, said a supermajority vote by a jury should be sufficient to impose the death penalty. That would make Florida the second state to allow nonunanimous jury votes for the death penalty, in addition to Alabama.

    DeSantis expanded that proposal, saying child sexual abuse — specifically rape — should also be punishable by death, with a minimum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    “These people don’t care. They are unrepentant,” DeSantis said. “… I believe the only appropriate punishment that would be commensurate to that would be capital.”

    The room responded with applause.

    The U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 ruled that the death penalty can only be applicable in the instance of murder.

    DeSantis said the state will pursue child sexual abuse cases that seek the death penalty and could potentially reach the Supreme Court.

    “We do not believe the Supreme Court, in its current iteration, would uphold it,” he said of the 2008 ruling, “and so we are going to be exploring ways to facilitate some capital trials if you have the worst of the worst.”

    “Battle against fentanyl”

    The governor also included a plan to address what he called the “battle against fentanyl.” Under his proposal, it would become a first-degree felony to possess, sell or manufacture fentanyl to look like candy, with a minimum life sentence and $1 million penalty for people who are targeting children as customers.

    “We’re going to take action against this, because this is really targeting our youngest and most vulnerable kids,” he said.

    DeSantis said his upcoming budget recommendation will include $20 million for local police agencies to go after fentanyl. “I know that that money will be very, very well spent,” he said.

    Bail reform backlash

    The governor joined a growing chorus of Florida politicians decrying cash bail reform, saying he plans to petition the Florida Supreme Court to set a uniform bond schedule that all state courts must follow.

    When someone can afford to post bail, they can be released from jail quickly while awaiting trial for hundreds of criminal offenses. But people who can’t afford to make bail can spend weeks or months in county custody while awaiting trial on the same charges.

    An effort by judges, prosecutors, county jail administrators and others would make it easier for people with lower incomes to get out of jail on the same schedule as someone with the means to post bail. A final proposal is expected sometime this year.

    For the vast majority of charges in Florida, an individual is eligible to put up cash to stay out of jail. But under the new proposal, over 700 specific offenses will be flagged as excludable, meaning a judge must oversee any bond decision. Miami-Dade Chief Judge Nushin Sayfie, who is championing the overhaul, has said that, under the plan, it is likely that more people will actually appear in court.

    Despite that, the proposal has generated backlash from Miami-Dade cities. Since December, at least four have passed resolutions opposing or criticizing the plan: Miami Beach, South Miami, West Miami and Doral.

    Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo said Miami-Dade should be a “hard NO on this liberal idea” in a Twitter post sharing a Jan. 22 Miami Herald article about the effort. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, standing with President Joe Biden during the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., last week, also condemned cash bail reform — although his criticism was directed at the concept in general, rather than the Miami-Dade proposal.

    At Thursday’s news conference, Capt. Fernando Morales of the Homestead Police Department echoed the opposition.

    “In our community, our officers are arresting violent criminals just to see them released a couple days later or, if not, during the same shift,” Morales said.

    Miami-Dade’s Corrections Department is part of the team assembling the plan to streamline the county’s bail system and let people be released from jail immediately after arrests for low-level crimes, rather than let bail amounts be barriers to going home before trial.

    County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava oversees Corrections. At a news conference Wednesday ahead of her state of the county address, Levine Cava declined to speak about the bail controversy.

    “When there’s a final proposal, we’ll review it and weigh in,” she said.

    The new plan would utilize software that seeks to predict who may break the law in the future to help determine whether people arrested for certain low-level crimes could be released immediately, rather than being detained until they can attend a bond hearing and learn how much they’ll have to pay to be released.

    The use of such software has been controversial. On Thursday, DeSantis said technology can’t replace the “human wisdom” of a judge.

    “If you have a circuit judge, that person can be voted out of office if they’re releasing criminals,” he said. “You can’t vote an algorithm out of office.”

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/florid...outputType=amp
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  2. #412
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    I like Governor DeSantis very much, but I think this will be nothing but political pandering. Florida has a death row backlog of 116 inmates, with some of them having exhausted their appeals for more than a decade. If he really wants to be tough-on-crime, instead of chasing an overturn of Kennedy v. Louisiana which likely will never happen, he should sign death warrants after death warrants, sending to the gurney those who already have a pending death sentence, many of them - by the way - being child rapists.

  3. #413
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Steven AB's Avatar
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    Current primary polls say that DeSantis would win the nomination only if him and Trump were the only two contenders.

    For now, he loses in any realistic poll with most or all of the likely candidates.

    Doing one execution per week is feasible in Florida, and would be the best way to beat Trump, possibly the only one.

    http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...l=1#post146966

    The protests at the correctional institution during each execution night and their media coverage would be spectacular.
    Last edited by Steven AB; 01-28-2023 at 10:52 AM.
    "If ever there were a case for a referendum, this is one on which the people should be allowed to express their own views and not irresponsible votes in the House of Commons." — Winston Churchill, on the death penalty

    The self-styled "Death Penalty Information Center" is financed by the oligarchic European Union. — The Daily Signal

  4. #414
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    The Senate version of the supermajority bill is on the committee agenda for the Florida Senate's Criminal Justice Committee on 3/6/2023 https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bil...ab=BillHistory

  5. #415
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    Florida bill seeks death penalty for child rapists, challenging SCOTUS

    In legislation filed Wednesday, lawmakers argued the Supreme Court “wrongly decided” the case.

    By Romy Ellenbogen
    The Tampa Bay Times

    Acting on a proposal from Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida lawmakers filed legislation Wednesday to allow the death penalty for adults who sexually batter children younger than 12.

    The bills would put Florida at odds with prior U.S. Supreme Court precedent saying that capital punishment can only be applied in the case of murder. But the bill sponsors — Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, and Rep. Jessica Baker, R-Jacksonville — are seeking a challenge of prior rulings.

    A 2008 Supreme Court case, Kennedy v. Louisiana, and a 1981 Florida Supreme Court case were “wrongly decided and an egregious infringement of the states’ power to punish the most heinous of crimes,” the bills’ text reads.

    DeSantis, when announcing his proposal in January, made similar comments.

    “We do not believe the Supreme Court, in its current iteration, would uphold it, and so we are going to be exploring ways to facilitate some capital trials if you have the worst of the worst,” he said.

    Florida statutes already say sexual battery of a child under 12 is a capital felony, but it has been effectively moot because of Supreme Court rulings barring the death penalty in such cases. The bills filed Wednesday say it’s the Legislature’s intent that the procedure in the statute, allowing for capital punishment, be followed.

    Martin said it was time for the Supreme Court to consider “the safety and the wellbeing of our little kids.” Martin said he thinks sexual battery of a child is worse than murder, and as a father of three children, he would rather be killed than have someone touch his children.

    “The goal of this bill is to discourage anybody who might ever contemplate something this horrific and steer them in another direction,” Martin said.

    Stephen Harper, the founder of Florida International University’s Florida Center for Capital Representation, said using the death penalty for cases other than murder has been effectively prohibited since a 1977 Supreme Court case, which was reinforced in 2008.

    “It is unconstitutional to kill anybody for any crime other than first-degree murder, period,” Harper said. “There’s no reason for the Supreme Court of the United States, as conservative as it is, to change the law with respect to expanding those that are eligible for the death penalty.”

    The proposed legislation also matches another bill that proposes lowering the threshold for the death penalty from a unanimous jury recommendation to an 8-4 vote. Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, and Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, filed legislation to change the jury requirement.

    Lowering the jury threshold is another move backed by DeSantis, who has expressed outrage about a jury’s vote in favor of a life sentence instead of a death sentence for the Parkland school shooter. Three of 12 jurors voted for a life sentence instead of death.

    Going to an 8-4 threshold would give Florida the lowest death penalty threshold in the nation. Only Alabama currently has a nonunanimous jury requirement, requiring at least a 10-2 vote for the death penalty.

    The legislation from Ingoglia and Jacques would also bring back the ability for a judge to override a jury’s recommendation for a life sentence and to give the death penalty instead.

    It would make Florida the only state in the nation to allow for judicial override, which Florida allowed until the Legislature reworked the laws in 2016. In current statute, Florida judges can still override a jury’s recommendation for the death penalty and give a life sentence instead.

    But in the bill filed by Martin and Baker, judicial override — in either the direction of death or life — is prohibited.

    The bills filed Wednesday say that if a death sentence for sexual battery is reviewed and found unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court, the defendant should be resentenced to life in prison.

    Last week, Florida executed the first inmate on death row in three years. Donald Dillbeck, who was convicted in 1991 and sentenced to death on an 8-4 jury vote, died by lethal injection on Feb. 23.

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/florid...ery-execution/
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  6. #416
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fact View Post
    The Senate version of the supermajority bill is on the committee agenda for the Florida Senate's Criminal Justice Committee on 3/6/2023 https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bil...ab=BillHistory
    Reported favorably out of committee by a 6-2 vote.

  7. #417
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    Where was DeSantis 3 years ago? Is this is his tough on crime stance to take on Trump?

  8. #418
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Yes it is Neil! The time has come to take out the trash and make a conservative presidential election in 2024. Trump has a major lead over DeSantis but who knows where that leads 18 months from now?! Hoping DeSantis can make good on his promises..
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

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  9. #419
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Bill allowing death penalty for child rapists in Florida gets bipartisan support

    The legislation would challenge existing U.S. Supreme Court precedent

    By Romy Ellenbogen
    Tampa Bay Times

    A bill that would challenge existing Supreme Court precedent by allowing the death penalty for people who sexually batter young children moved through its first committee in the Florida Senate with a unanimous vote on Monday.

    The bill challenges a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Kennedy v. Louisiana, that determined the death penalty could not be applied for the rape of a child, saying it was a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

    Currently, the application of the death penalty for any case other than murder is unconstitutional. But the Florida bill, SB 1342, says that the 2008 case and a 1981 Florida Supreme Court case were “wrongly decided and an egregious infringement of the states’ power to punish the most heinous of crimes.”

    The bill is a bipartisan effort. Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin of Fort Myers introduced the legislation with Democratic Senate leader Lauren Book of Plantation. Similar legislation, HB 1297, has been filed in the House.

    Book has been outspoken about her own experience as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, and she runs a charity organization focused on childhood sex abuse prevention.

    During the committee meeting, Book’s father, lobbyist Ron Book, made an emotional appeal to the committee members, saying sex crimes on children were “so heinous, so violent, so horrific.”

    “On behalf of those who will never be able to say ‘thank you’ for this bill, this is the right thing to do,” Ron Book said.

    Though the U.S. Supreme Court only explicitly ruled out the death penalty for all non-murder cases in 2008, no one had been executed for any crime other than murder in the U.S. since 1964, according to a Senate staff analysis.

    Many states had not sought the death penalty for individuals charged with crimes other than murder because of a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled the death penalty unconstitutional for the rape of an adult.

    Florida has a law on the books that designates sexual battery of a child under 12 as a capital felony, but the statute has been effectively moot because of the court rulings.

    Martin said he is pushing the challenge because he believes that the rape of a child is worse than some murder cases, and he hopes having the ability to apply the death penalty in those cases will be a deterrent.

    “Ultimately if you look at the court’s makeup from 2008, it has changed significantly,” Martin said. “I think the current makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court believes that states should have more of a say in decisions like criminal justice that were originally left to the states under the U.S. Constitution.”

    The idea of expanding capital punishment has also been a push of Gov. Ron DeSantis. In January, DeSantis announced an idea to reduce the number of jurors required to implement the death penalty and a proposal to expand capital punishment to child sexual battery.

    The bill heard Monday would require eight or more jurors to vote in favor of the death penalty, instead of the current requirement for a unanimous jury. It would make Florida one of only two states with a nonunanimous jury requirement. Alabama currently has a 10-2 requirement. (Another bill, SB 450, moving through the Legislature also proposes to lower the jury threshold in capital cases to a minimum of eight jurors in favor.)

    Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Hollywood, said he thinks the legislation sets up an easy Supreme Court win for the governor ahead of the 2024 election, in which DeSantis is widely expected to run for president. But Pizzo said that shouldn’t be the focus of the discussion of the bill.

    “You are a far more depraved individual, in my experience, to touch a kid than you are to shoot somebody,” Pizzo said.

    Unlike Florida’s death penalty sentencing plan for murder cases, the proposed legislation would only allow capital punishment for child sexual battery if jurors unanimously find there are two aggravating factors to the crime, instead of only one. Aggravating factors include things like whether the perpetrator used a firearm, whether they were a felon on probation and whether the victim was especially vulnerable because of a disability.

    “As we were talking to other senators they wanted to make sure that this penalty was reserved for the worst of the worst,” Martin said.

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/florid...antis-florida/
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  10. #420
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    I could agree in spirit, but in reality this is nothing but political pandering.

    Florida has a backlog of 116 appeals-exhausted, warrant-ready death row inmates. One hundred and sixteen, my friends. With the present pace of 6 inmates per year (which is an upgrade from the absolute nothing of the last years), it will take 19,3 years to execute them all.

    If these lawmakers would be really serious in their will to revive Florida death penalty, they would work to find a way to drastically clear this ginormous backlog, instead of losing time in (likely uncostitutional) empty dreams.

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