Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) expanded Florida’s death penalty law on Monday, signing a measure making it a capital crime to rape a child under the age of 12, a law that could set up a future U.S. Supreme Court case.
Vowing Florida “stands for the protection of children,” DeSantis signed the law during a campaign-style event in Titusville, touting his record on issues involving “law and order.”
The measure, which overwhelmingly passed the Florida legislature last month with bipartisan support, gives state prosecutors the option of seeking the death penalty if an adult is found guilty of the sexual battery of a child.
The law will still go into effect even though it is unconstitutional. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5 to 4 decision that struck down a Louisiana law that allowed a child rapist to be sentenced to death, barring states from executing child sex predators unless they also murdered their victims.
A coalition of social workers and defense attorneys supported the court’s decision then, arguing child sex abuse victims may be less willing to speak up if their assailant was vulnerable to being put to death. They also argued child rapists would be more inclined to kill their victims if they knew they faced capital punishment for their crimes, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
DeSantis is expected to seek the 2024 GOP nomination for president and has used Florida’s ongoing legislative session to define his agenda for the state and the nation. He has argued that the Supreme Court erred in its decision because it failed to take into account the trauma that child sex victims and their families endure.
DeSantis said Monday that Florida is prepared to defend its law and place it back before the nation’s highest court for consideration.
“We think that decision was wrong,” DeSantis said at his bill-signing event. “This bill sets up a procedure to be able to challenge that precedent and say in Florida, we think the worst-of-the-worst crimes deserve the worst-of-the-worst punishment. ”
The new law marks the second time this year that DeSantis has expanded the state’s death penalty law. Last month, he signed a bill scrapping the requirement of unanimous jury verdicts during the sentencing phase of capital punishment cases.
The new requirement states that just eight of 12 jurors must agree to sentence someone to death, one of the lowest thresholds in the nation. DeSantis pushed for that expansion after a jury failed to apply the death penalty to Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2017, during his trial in Broward County last year.
DeSantis’s efforts to toughen Florida laws come as Republican leaders nationwide have been more emphatically linking themselves with capital punishment, even as the party simultaneously praises the right to life as it pushes to limit access to abortion.
During campaign speeches, former president Donald Trump has called for the execution of drug dealers. Last month, Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed a law permitting the use of firing squads instead of lethal injection for capital crimes.
GOP state legislators in Iowa are also pushing to reinstate capital punishment in that state, reversing a 1965 ban on the practice.
Several Democratic officials have moved in the opposite direction, reflecting the increasing opposition to capital punishment within elements of the party. In recent weeks, both Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) have called for the repeal of death penalty laws in their states, unlikely proposals considering Republicans continue to control at least one legislative chamber in both places.
On April 21, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) formally repealed capital punishment in that state. Democrats in the state legislature had pushed for the repeal after the Supreme Court halted the practice in 2018, ruling it was “arbitrary and racially biased.”
Vowing Florida “stands for the protection of children,” DeSantis signed the law during a campaign-style event in Titusville, touting his record on issues involving “law and order.”
The measure, which overwhelmingly passed the Florida legislature last month with bipartisan support, gives state prosecutors the option of seeking the death penalty if an adult is found guilty of the sexual battery of a child.
The law will still go into effect even though it is unconstitutional. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5 to 4 decision that struck down a Louisiana law that allowed a child rapist to be sentenced to death, barring states from executing child sex predators unless they also murdered their victims.
A coalition of social workers and defense attorneys supported the court’s decision then, arguing child sex abuse victims may be less willing to speak up if their assailant was vulnerable to being put to death. They also argued child rapists would be more inclined to kill their victims if they knew they faced capital punishment for their crimes, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
DeSantis is expected to seek the 2024 GOP nomination for president and has used Florida’s ongoing legislative session to define his agenda for the state and the nation. He has argued that the Supreme Court erred in its decision because it failed to take into account the trauma that child sex victims and their families endure.
DeSantis said Monday that Florida is prepared to defend its law and place it back before the nation’s highest court for consideration.
“We think that decision was wrong,” DeSantis said at his bill-signing event. “This bill sets up a procedure to be able to challenge that precedent and say in Florida, we think the worst-of-the-worst crimes deserve the worst-of-the-worst punishment. ”
The new law marks the second time this year that DeSantis has expanded the state’s death penalty law. Last month, he signed a bill scrapping the requirement of unanimous jury verdicts during the sentencing phase of capital punishment cases.
The new requirement states that just eight of 12 jurors must agree to sentence someone to death, one of the lowest thresholds in the nation. DeSantis pushed for that expansion after a jury failed to apply the death penalty to Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2017, during his trial in Broward County last year.
DeSantis’s efforts to toughen Florida laws come as Republican leaders nationwide have been more emphatically linking themselves with capital punishment, even as the party simultaneously praises the right to life as it pushes to limit access to abortion.
During campaign speeches, former president Donald Trump has called for the execution of drug dealers. Last month, Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed a law permitting the use of firing squads instead of lethal injection for capital crimes.
GOP state legislators in Iowa are also pushing to reinstate capital punishment in that state, reversing a 1965 ban on the practice.
Several Democratic officials have moved in the opposite direction, reflecting the increasing opposition to capital punishment within elements of the party. In recent weeks, both Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) have called for the repeal of death penalty laws in their states, unlikely proposals considering Republicans continue to control at least one legislative chamber in both places.
On April 21, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) formally repealed capital punishment in that state. Democrats in the state legislature had pushed for the repeal after the Supreme Court halted the practice in 2018, ruling it was “arbitrary and racially biased.”
