Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is backing legislative efforts in the Sunshine State that would make it easier to execute convicted criminals – including child rapists – ahead of his expected 2024 presidential run.
The two tough-on-crime bills pushed by DeSantis in the Florida State Capitol would authorize the death penalty for people who commit sexual battery on children under age 12, and would allow juries to recommend capital punishment by a vote of at least 8-4.
“We are authorizing the death penalty for child rapists”’ DeSantis told “Good Morning Orlando” Monday, acknowledging that the change would be “cutting against recent Supreme Court precedent” but adding that the current court would likely consider a challenge.
The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 2008 decision that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment prevented imposing the death penalty for child rapists or anyone who committed a crime in which the victim did not die.
Since that decision, all five of the majority justices — Anthony Kennedy, John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer — have left the high court through either retirement or death.
“My view is, you have some of these people that will be serial rapists of six, seven-year-old kids,” DeSantis said Monday. “I think the death penalty is the only appropriate punishment when you have situations like that.”
DeSantis cited the Feb. 14, 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., as part of the impetus for removing the unanimous jury recommendation barrier to the death penalty that currently exists in Florida.
The Parkland shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murdering 17 people at the school and injuring 17 others. One juror in the sentencing phase of his trial refused to vote in favor of giving Cruz the death penalty, which DeSantis said was “really the only appropriate punishment.”
“What happened with the Parkland case, it was an 11-1 vote to give the death penalty for the perpetrator of the Parkland massacre. So, you had one juror that held out and the problem is if you do it like that, if one juror just objects to the death penalty they can nullify a death sentence,” the governor said.
DeSantis added that he believes certain jurors “bring an agenda to bear” and try to get on death penalty cases with the goal of nullifying capital punishment.
“So, when you say it’s not unanimous, I think it’s a protection against the nullification. Look, if you don’t support capital punishment, I respect that, but the way to deal with that is to try to get the laws changed in the state through the democratic process – not to be on a jury and to nullify capital punishment,” he said.
DeSantis, who is expected to launch his 2024 presidential campaign after Florida’s legislative session ends in May, has been touting his tough-on-crime policies across the country in 2023.
“We are holding people accountable,” DeSantis told Republicans at a Lincoln Day breakfast in Akron, Ohio, last week. “We reject soft-on-crime polices like eliminating cash bail or jailbreak legislation that lets dangerous criminals out of jail before they have finished their sentence. We see the plague across the country of left-wing district attorneys getting elected.”
The Florida governor’s top opponent in the 2024 GOP presidential primary would likely be former President Donald Trump, who has needled DeSantis’ record on criminal justice.
In March, Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC hit the governor for signing a 2019 bill that raised the amount that must be stolen for someone to be charged with a felony.
The Trump-affiliated political group claimed that “while President Trump is the only presidential candidate calling for the death penalty for drug dealers, DeSantis is giving a pass to thieves.”
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