Florida to Set Lower Death Penalty Threshold

[applegrove]

Florida to Set Lower Death Penalty Threshold

April 14, 2023 at 2:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 92 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2023/04/14/florida-to-set-lower-death-penalty-threshold/

"SNIP.......

“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 Washington Post reports.

“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.”

........SNIP"

Applegrove:

Abbott and DeSantos are trying to be terrifying. They are terrifying. But not to the extent Hitler was. They are trying to get there through legal means.

[patphil]

1. Why not 7?

It's only a little bit more idiotic.
After all, we're only talking death penalty here.

[Aristus]

2. Ah yes; "Pro-Life" legislation at its finest.

[obamanut2012]

3. DeSantis

Italian, not Latino.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. DeSantis-backed death penalty bill flouts Supreme Court precedent -- for now

DeathSantis' proposed law is unconstitutional

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/desantis-death-penalty-florida-rcna73109

One problem with the proposed law is that the Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty is not allowed in such a nonhomicide case. That’s according to the 2008 ruling in Kennedy v. Louisiana, where the court sided with the defendant by a 5-4 vote.

Since 2008, however, the court has undergone a revolution in its membership. For one thing, the author of that bare majority ruling, former swing justice Anthony Kennedy, has been replaced by the more-conservative Brett Kavanaugh. Another member of the majority, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has been replaced by the much more conservative Amy Coney Barrett.

Indeed, the court has shifted further rightward on the death penalty generally and on the Eighth Amendment specifically. That amendment bars cruel and unusual punishment and guided the relevant 2008 precedent. Of course, we all know how much this court reveres precedent, in the wake of the Dobbs ruling that tossed Roe v. Wade.

So while this DeSantis-backed legal maneuver is clearly banking on the Republican-majority Supreme Court chucking another precedent aside, I can’t guarantee that it won’t succeed