DeSantis Indicators Invoice to Decrease Bar on Demise Sentence in Florida

(Reuters) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a invoice on Thursday ending a requirement that juries must vote unanimously to advocate capital punishment earlier than a choose in a capital felony trial can sentence a defendant to dying.

The Republican governor, who is anticipated to run for his get together’s 2024 presidential nomination, gave last approval to laws that authorizes juries in capital circumstances to advocate the dying penalty within the occasion that 4 jurors or fewer object. The measure acquired sturdy assist within the state’s Republican-controlled legislature.

Assist for the change picked up in October when a jury failed to achieve a unanimous resolution on a dying sentence for Nikolas Cruz, convicted of killing 17 individuals at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty in Parkland, Florida. The 2018 rampage stands as one of many deadliest faculty shootings in U.S. historical past.

Three jurors voted in opposition to a dying sentence, in line with the Demise Penalty Info Heart, leaving Cruz to be sentenced to life in jail with out the potential of parole.

Surrounded by victims’ dad and mom on Thursday, DeSantis signed the invoice that he mentioned would “guarantee correct justice” is delivered in future circumstances.

“As soon as a defendant in a capital case is discovered responsible by a unanimous jury, one juror shouldn’t be capable of veto a capital sentence,” he mentioned in an announcement.

Florida prosecutors making an attempt capital felony circumstances would wish to persuade a supermajority, or two-thirds, of a 12-member jury panel that somebody who’s convicted deserves the dying penalty.

The change solely impacts the penalty section of capital trials. It might don’t have any impact on the requirement for a jury’s unanimous vote to convict a defendant.

Florida joins Alabama as the one states the place a unanimous jury resolution just isn’t required, the Demise Penalty Info Heart famous.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford in New York Metropolis; Enhancing by Alistair Bell)

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