The US state of Florida has changed the procedure for handing out death sentences to the detriment of the accused. A new law will no longer require a unanimous recommendation from the 12 juries for a death sentence in criminal cases. According to media reports, Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis signed the amendment, according to which eight votes are enough.
Florida has the lowest threshold for death sentences in the United States. The director of the Florida Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Michael Sheedy, said he was “shocked”. The death penalty does not alleviate suffering and strengthens “violence and revenge”. DeSantis signed the law into law in the presence of relatives of victims of the 2018 mass murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas School in Parkland, Florida, the newspaper reported Miami Herald.
A young man shot 17 people at the time. A jury found the perpetrator guilty. However, only nine jurors favored the death penalty. The killer was sentenced to life imprisonment. A “single juror should not be able to avoid a death sentence,” DeSantis said.
27 of the 50 US states consider the death penalty for particularly serious crimes. In almost all states, the jury must unanimously vote in favor of a death sentence. Ten yes votes are enough in Alabama, and in Indiana and Missouri the judge decides when the jury disagrees.
DeSantis’ move comes at a time of growing criticism of the death penalty. Executions in the US have been falling since a peak in 1999 of 98 executions. According to the Washington Death Penalty Information Center, 18 people were killed in the country in 2022 as a result of a court decision. No state has reported as many death sentences against innocent people as Florida, the center reported. Since the 1970s, 191 death sentences have been overturned nationwide due to the proven innocence of those convicted, 30 of them in Florida.