30 September 2023 :
SEPTEMBER 30, 2023 - Florida's new death penalty law for child rape goes into effect on October 1.
A new Florida law is slated to go into effect tomorrow that would allow judges to impose the death penalty when sentencing people convicted of the rape of a child age 12 or under.
The laws passed during the legislative session that ended May 5. The bill, HB 1297, was signed into law on May 2 and will be just one of nearly 40 other new laws that will go into effect at the same time.
During a May 1 bill-signing event in Brevard County, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the measure is “for the protection of children.”
“Unfortunately, in our society, we have very heinous sex crimes that are committed against children under the age of 12 years old,” DeSantis said. “These are really the worst of the worst. The perpetrators of these crimes are often serial offenders.”
HB 1297 allows a jury by a vote of at least 8-4 to recommend a death sentence for sexual battery on a child under the age of 12. It passed out of the Legislature with support from both parties in both chambers. Only three Democrats and two Republicans voted against the legislation in the Senate.
