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Re: Florida to allow death penalty with 8-4 jury vote instead of unanimously
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Hannes Heer
Apr 18, 2023, 4:50:03 AM4/18/23
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RichA <rande...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:sgh0op$7ir$5...@news.dns-netz.com:
> Delimited wrote
>
>>
>> They need to kill the niggers first.
(Reuters) -Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to sign a bill on
Friday allowing juries to recommend the death penalty in capital cases on
an 8-4 vote, a move spurred by the less-than-unanimous vote that led to
the Parkland school shooter being sentenced to life in prison.
The state's Republican-led House of Representatives approved the measure
with an 80-30 vote on Thursday, following the Republican-controlled state
Senate's approval in March.
If the Republican governor signs the bill into law, Florida prosecutors
trying capital felony cases would need to convince only two-thirds of the
12-member jury that someone who is convicted deserves the death penalty,
rather than a unanimous decision by a jury.
The change only affects the penalty phase of capital trials. It would have
no effect on the requirement for a jury's unanimous vote to convict a
defendant.
DeSantis has pushed for the legislation since October when he said he was
"very disappointed" after a jury could not come to a unanimous decision on
giving a death sentence to Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018.
Three jurors voted to spare Cruz, and by default his sentence was life in
prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center.
If the bill becomes law, Florida would join Alabama as the only states
where a unanimous jury decision is not required, the center noted.
Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina was killed in the Parkland shooting,
has been pushing for Florida lawmakers to change the jury requirement.
"Because of the jury's incorrect decision ... the victims, my beautiful
daughter, her 13 classmates and her three teachers did not get the justice
that they deserve," Montalto said during an interview on WPLG, an ABC
affiliate in South Florida, in March.
DeSantis, widely thought to be weighing a 2024 presidential campaign, has
accelerated efforts to build his national profile, especially around crime
and justice issues. In February, he traveled to New York, Chicago and
Philadelphia to speak to law enforcement groups on criminal justice
matters.
Legal and ethical questions have swirled around capital punishment in the
United States in recent years as states have found it difficult to procure
drugs to carry out the death penalty through lethal injections. Several
executions have been botched in recent years.
In 2017, Florida passed a law that required death penalties to be imposed
only after a unanimous recommendation by a jury.
The law came after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an earlier state
law, saying it unconstitutionally let judges determine the facts that
would lead to a death sentence, rather than juries.
<https://news.yahoo.com/florida-allow-death-penalty-8-154431120.html>
news:sgh0op$7ir$5...@news.dns-netz.com:
> Delimited wrote
>
>>
>> They need to kill the niggers first.
(Reuters) -Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to sign a bill on
Friday allowing juries to recommend the death penalty in capital cases on
an 8-4 vote, a move spurred by the less-than-unanimous vote that led to
the Parkland school shooter being sentenced to life in prison.
The state's Republican-led House of Representatives approved the measure
with an 80-30 vote on Thursday, following the Republican-controlled state
Senate's approval in March.
If the Republican governor signs the bill into law, Florida prosecutors
trying capital felony cases would need to convince only two-thirds of the
12-member jury that someone who is convicted deserves the death penalty,
rather than a unanimous decision by a jury.
The change only affects the penalty phase of capital trials. It would have
no effect on the requirement for a jury's unanimous vote to convict a
defendant.
DeSantis has pushed for the legislation since October when he said he was
"very disappointed" after a jury could not come to a unanimous decision on
giving a death sentence to Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018.
Three jurors voted to spare Cruz, and by default his sentence was life in
prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center.
If the bill becomes law, Florida would join Alabama as the only states
where a unanimous jury decision is not required, the center noted.
Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina was killed in the Parkland shooting,
has been pushing for Florida lawmakers to change the jury requirement.
"Because of the jury's incorrect decision ... the victims, my beautiful
daughter, her 13 classmates and her three teachers did not get the justice
that they deserve," Montalto said during an interview on WPLG, an ABC
affiliate in South Florida, in March.
DeSantis, widely thought to be weighing a 2024 presidential campaign, has
accelerated efforts to build his national profile, especially around crime
and justice issues. In February, he traveled to New York, Chicago and
Philadelphia to speak to law enforcement groups on criminal justice
matters.
Legal and ethical questions have swirled around capital punishment in the
United States in recent years as states have found it difficult to procure
drugs to carry out the death penalty through lethal injections. Several
executions have been botched in recent years.
In 2017, Florida passed a law that required death penalties to be imposed
only after a unanimous recommendation by a jury.
The law came after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an earlier state
law, saying it unconstitutionally let judges determine the facts that
would lead to a death sentence, rather than juries.
<https://news.yahoo.com/florida-allow-death-penalty-8-154431120.html>
Greg Carr
Apr 19, 2023, 3:40:18 PM4/19/23
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