Showing posts with label Florida death penalty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida death penalty. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Courts grapple with Florida’s death penalty change


A new state law lowering the number of jurors required to recommend death sentences has spurred a rash of litigation, triggered conflicting judicial rulings and infused an additional level of uncertainty in capital cases.

The changes have caused what numerous attorneys called “chaos” in the death-penalty system.

More HERE

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

MidPoint: Putting People to Death in Florida Just Got Easier


Death penalty defense lawyers, Allison Miller and Craig Whisenhunt joined MidPoint on Wednesday, May 24, to discuss the new legislation that now makes Florida the state with the lowest legal threshold to put convicted people to death.....MORE

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

DeSantis signs measure expanding Florida death penalty law


Under the new legislation, child rapists get a minimum sentence of life in prison without parole and are eligible for capital punishment. 

The legislation goes against a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the court found it unconstitutional for states to use the death penalty as punishment for the rape of a child if the victim had not died.

More HERE

Friday, April 21, 2023

DeSantis signs law making Florida lowest threshold for death penalty in the US


Thursday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis delivered on his promise to sign a law no longer requiring unanimous jury consent to access the death penalty.

Now only eight of 12 jurors are needed to recommend capital punishment. Wiping out the previous unanimity requirement.

More HERE

Thursday, April 13, 2023

Post-Parkland, Florida OKs easier path for death penalty


Florida will soon no longer require unanimous jury recommendations for judges to impose death-penalty sentences under a bill the Legislature approved Thursday, a reaction to the life sentence handed to the man who massacred 17 people at a Parkland high school.....MORE

Florida execution draws protest amid looming death penalty bills


Louis Bernard Gaskin became the 101st person executed in the state of Florida Wednesday night after being sentenced to death for the murder of a north Florida couple.....MORE

Friday, March 31, 2023

Full House nears vote on child rapist execution bill


A House bill that would lead to capital punishment for capital sexual battery on minors is ready for the floor.

HB 1297, a bill from Rep. Jessica Baker allowing for execution of child rapists without jury unanimity, a change clearly unconstitutional under current Supreme Court precedent, cleared the House Judiciary Committee by a 16-7 vote. That was its second and final committee stop.

More HERE

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

New death penalty rules readied for Senate passage


The Senate readied a bill for passage that would strip away the requirement that a jury unanimously agree in order to deliver the death penalty.

Under the bill (SB 450), eight of 12 jurors, a “supermajority”, would have to agree for a defendant to face the death penalty.

More HERE

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Rick Scott's Executions

Scott has presided over 18 executions, 
 including 13 in the last two years,
the most executions carried out by any Florida governor 
in a single term since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s.
With another execution scheduled in 10 days, 
 Scott has already exceeded the 15 executions carried out in Gov. Bob Graham's second term. Only Jeb Bush, who oversaw 21 executions in two terms over eight years, remains ahead of Scott. here

Friday, May 31, 2013

Democrat Jamie Grant

 Nearly made the professor gag.
“We’re not speeding up the death penalty. We’re just slowing down fraud. We’re just simply saying you can’t abuse rules of civil procedure in the appellate process.”
Stephen Harper a professor at Florida International University’s College of Law, nearly gags when he’s read Grant’s quote. “All litigation is legitimate litigation if somebody’s life is at stake,” he responds. Harper worked for nearly three decades inside the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office. He says if a state has a death penalty system it’s imperative that there be a “significant amount” of post-conviction remedies available, because it’s “very complicated stuff.”
here
Tell Gov. Scott to veto HB 7083 here