Florida set to lower death penalty threshold as bill heads to DeSantis

Read Time:2 Minute, 18 Second

Florida House lawmakers have approved a bill that would lower the state’s threshold for the death penalty and make it one of the few states to allow the death penalty without a unanimous jury recommendation.

The bill, which passed the state House on Thursday in an 80-30 vote and passed the Senate last month, allows capital punishment if eight of 12 jurors approve, instead of requiring a unanimous jury. It now awaits Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s signature. The bill would reverse a 2017 Florida law that required a jury unanimity for death penalties.

Of the 27 states that allow the death penalty, most require a unanimous jury decision. Alabama allows a 10-2 vote, and Missouri and Indiana allow a judge to decide if the jury is divided.

DeSantis has repeatedly expressed support for making capital punishment easier to impose and is expected to support the bill. The governor has been motivated by the case of Nikolas Cruz, who murdered 17 people in 2018 but avoided the death penalty after a jury couldn’t reach a unanimous decision. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.

“I’m sorry, but if you murder 17 people in cold blood, the only appropriate punishment is capital punishment,” DeSantis said as he was campaigning for reelection in October.

“We need to reform some of these laws. You can’t just have one holdout do that,” he said, referring to a juror who opposed levying the death penalty against Cruz during trials last year.

After two years of freedom, a man is ordered back to prison for life

Attorneys for Cruz, who killed 17 people at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, argued their client had a tough upbringing and suffered from mental illness. That persuaded at least one juror to oppose sentencing Cruz to death, jury foreman Benjamin Thomas said in an interview with CBS last year. Three jurors ultimately voted no.

Florida once allowed judges to impose death penalties with a simple majority in a jury — meaning seven jurors were enough to hand down capital punishment. Florida changed that law after the state Supreme Court ruled in 2016 “that in order for the trial court to impose a sentence of death, the jury’s recommended sentence of death must be unanimous.”

In 2020, the Florida Supreme Court reversed that decision, ruling that jury unanimity was not required for death sentences under the U.S. Constitution. That ruling laid the ground for state lawmakers to strike down the unanimity prerequisite for death penalties.

Florida has had at least 30 exonerations of people previously placed on death row, more than any other state, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit.