21 April 2023 :
(April 20, 2023) - DeSantis Signs Law Lowering Death Penalty Threshold
SB 450 reduces the number of jurors needed to recommend a death sentence from 12 to 8.
The change was prompted by a Florida jury’s decision last year to sentence to life in prison without parole the gunman who murdered 17 people in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The jury had voted 9 to 3 in favor of the death penalty in that case, but the judge could not impose it unless every juror had voted in favor.
Mr. DeSantis, who has been traveling across the country ahead of an expected 2024 Republican presidential campaign, received and quietly signed the law on Thursday in his office, accompanied by a few legislators and parents of Parkland victims.
“Once a defendant in a capital case is found guilty by a unanimous jury, one juror should not be able to veto a capital sentence,” he said in a statement.
Among the bills now headed to his desk is one that would allow the death penalty to be imposed on defendants who are convicted of sexual battery against children.
Nearly all of the 27 states that allow the death penalty require unanimous sentencing votes by juries. The new Florida threshold will be lower than the 10-to-2 majority required in Alabama. Indiana and Missouri allow judges to decide the sentence when jurors are divided.
