Speaker of the House Paul Renner (R-FL) and other Florida lawmakers are moving to support a multitude of pieces of pro-law enforcement, including a measure to modify the death penalty legislation.
State Representative Jessica Baker (R-FL) introduced HB 1297, which looks to require that only a majority threshold – rather than current law which needs a unanimous jury – should be met to invoke the death penalty in the case of child sexual offenders.
“Here in Florida, we want to send a very clear message that we will do anything to protect our kids, and that there is no place in a civilized society for those who would prey upon our children,” stated Rep. Baker.
“I believe the state of Florida does have a right to determine the punishment for the horrific and monstrous crime of raping a small child. And I just want to thank the Speaker again for the opportunity to run this important bill.”
Speaker Renner provided his comments on the move to modify state law in this situation and other situations as well.
“I‘ve always believed, as [Governor DeSantis] does, that in certain circumstances deserves the death penalty. The court has decided otherwise in prior opinions, and they may take a different view now,” stated Speaker Renner.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has not spoken expressively on this issue and as Representative Jacque noted, the Florida Supreme Court, the former court did, and then the more recent court said ‘No, no, that’s not a requirement under the Florida Constitution.’…obviously we cannot roll back the clock and get justice for the Parkland parents, but this would address a situation like that in the future.”
State Representative Benny Jacque (R-FL), a co-sponsor of HB 1297, and main sponsor of HB 555, which would only require 8 jurors to approve a death penalty sentencing, mentioned that Florida has suffered “a lot of heartache” due to not being able to hand down a death penalty sentence at times.
“We’ve had a lot of heartache in our state because many families were robbed of justice based on this necessary threshold. The most notable, of course, is the grieving families down in Parkland, but certainly, there’s many others across our state,” stated Rep. Jacque.
The state of Florida has executeed death row inmate Louis Gaskin on Wednesday, the 12th for the double murder he committed in 1989.
