Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Florida .
Since 1976, the state has executed 106 convicted murderers, all at Florida State Prison. [1] As of October 12, 2024, 280 offenders are awaiting execution. [2]
Prior to 1923, executions in Florida were carried out by county governments, usually by hanging. In 1923, the Florida Legislature made electrocution the official method of execution. The new electric chair was originally housed at Union Correctional Institution, but moved to Florida State Prison in 1962. [3]
The first electrocution was of Frank Johnson on October 7, 1924. The new electrocution law was challenged by the circuit court of Union County in June 1929 on the grounds that, as he was neither elected or appointed, the prison superintendent could not perform executions; the state supreme court upheld the law, however, in November 1930. [4] Florida performed its last pre-Furman execution on May 12, 1964. [3] After the Supreme Court of the United States struck down all states' death penalty procedures in Furman v. Georgia (1972), essentially ruling the imposition of the death penalty at the same time as a guilty verdict unconstitutional, Florida was the first state to draft a newly written statute on August 12, 1972, [5] and all 96 death row inmates (95 male and 1 female) were commuted to life in prison. [3]
After the Supreme Court permitted the death penalty once more in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), the state electrocuted John Arthur Spenkelink on May 25, 1979, which was the second execution in the U.S. since 1967, after that of Gary Gilmore on January 17, 1977, in Utah. [6]
In Florida, murder can be punished by death if it involves one of the following aggravating factors: [7]
Florida statute 782.04(1)(a)3. specifies that when a person 18 years of age or older unlawfully distributes certain controlled substances, including but not limited to cocaine, opium/opioids, fentanyl, carfentanil, methamphetamine, or analogs thereof, and the use of that substance alone is proven to have caused the death of the user or been a substantial factor in the user's death, regardless of any other substances involved, then the distributor has committed murder in the first degree. First degree murder is a capital felony in Florida, punishable by death or life imprisonment. This statute holds drug dealers strictly liable for deaths resulting from the drugs they illegally provide, and subjects them to the state's harshest penalty if the drugs are proven to be the proximate cause of a user's death.
Florida statute also provides the death penalty for capital drug trafficking and discharging or using a destructive device causing death. A provision for capital sexual battery was found unconstitutional in the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court case Kennedy v. Louisiana . No one is on death row in the United States for drug trafficking.
In May 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that allows the death penalty for defendants convicted of child rape. Since the law contradicts the Kennedy v. Louisiana ruling, it will likely be challenged in the courts. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] The first attempted use of the law was in the case of accused child molester Joseph Giampa, who ultimately pleaded guilty rather than risk possible execution. [13]
In Hurst v. Florida (2014), the United States Supreme Court struck down part of Florida's death penalty law, holding it was not sufficient for a judge to determine the aggravating facts to be used in considering a death sentence. The court ruled that this trial process violated the Sixth Amendment right to jury trial under Ring v. Arizona (2002). [14] [15] This was later held to benefit only to defendants sentenced by a non-unanimous jury from 2002 to 2014. [16]
When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the jury must unanimously find that an aggravating factor found by the prosecution exists, making the defendant eligible for a death sentence. Once this eligibility is established, a supermajority of at least 8 jurors must concur that the established aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors for a recommendation for a death sentence. Should less than eight jurors find that the aggravating factors do not outweigh the mitigating factors, the jury's recommendation shall be a life sentence which shall be the sentence imposed by the trial judge (there is no retrial). Should the jury make a recommendation for a sentence of death, the trial judge shall have the discretion to determine whether a death or life sentence shall be imposed; the trial judge must justify his or her reasoning in a written order. [17] [18]
Prior to 2014, the judge decided the sentence alone, and the jury gave only a non-binding advice. [19] In March 2014, the Florida Legislature provided a 10-juror supermajority to issue a sentence of death. [20] This was also challenged and in October 2014, the Florida Supreme Court struck down the law, finding that death sentences can only be handed down by a unanimous jury. [21]
On April 20, 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 450 that eliminated the unanimous jury requirement, replacing it with a supermajority of at least eight of twelve jurors. The law went into effect the date it was signed: April 20, 2023. This followed DeSantis' call for an end to the unanimity requirement. [22] [23] [24]
On June 14, 2013, Governor Rick Scott signed the Timely Justice Act of 2013. The law is designed to overhaul and speed up the process of capital punishment. It creates tighter time frames for a person sentenced to death to make appeals and post-conviction motions and imposes reporting requirements on case progress. [25]
Death sentences are carried out via lethal injection. However, the sentence can be carried out by electrocution if the offender requests it. [26] If lethal injection or electrocution is held unconstitutional, statutes authorize the use of "any constitutional method of execution" instead. [27]
The only execution chamber in Florida is located at Florida State Prison in Starke. When sentenced, male convicts who receive the death penalty are incarcerated at either Florida State Prison itself, or at Union Correctional Institution next door to Florida State Prison, while female convicts who are sentenced to death are incarcerated at Lowell Correctional Institution north of Ocala. Inmates are moved to the death row at Florida State Prison when their death warrant is signed.
Florida used public hanging under a local jurisdiction, overseen and performed by the sheriffs of the counties where the crimes took place. However, in 1923, the Florida Legislature passed a law replacing hanging with the electric chair and stated that all future execution will be performed under state jurisdiction inside prisons. [28] [29] The electric chair became a subject of strong controversy in the 1990s after three executions received considerable media attention and were labeled as "botched" by opponents (Jesse Tafero in 1990, Pedro Medina in 1997, and Allen Lee Davis in 1999). While most states switched to the lethal injection, many politicians in Florida opposed giving up "Old Sparky", seeing it as a "deterrent". [30] Finally, after the Davis execution, lethal injection was enabled as the default method. [31]
During Governor Rick Scott's tenure (2011-2019), Florida executed more inmates (28) than had been executed under any other governor in the state's history. [32] [33]
The Governor of Florida has the right to commute the death penalty, but only with positive recommendation of clemency from a Board, where they sit. [34]
Between 1925 and 1965, 57 commutations were granted out of 268 cases. [35] Since 1972, when the death penalty was re-instituted, only six commutations have been granted, all under the administration of Governor Bob Graham. [34]
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Louisiana.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Arkansas.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Indiana. The last person executed in the state, excluding federal executions in Terre Haute, was the murderer Matthew Wrinkles in 2009.
Capital punishment is not allowed to be carried out in the U.S. state of California, due to both a standing 2006 federal court order against the practice and a 2019 moratorium on executions ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom. The litigation resulting in the court order has been on hold since the promulgation of the moratorium. Should the moratorium end and the freeze conclude, executions could resume under the current state law.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Utah.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Nebraska. In 2015, the state legislature voted to repeal the death penalty, overriding governor Pete Ricketts' veto. However, a petition drive secured enough signatures to suspend the repeal until a public vote. In the November 2016 general election, voters rejected the repeal measure, preserving capital punishment in the state. Nebraska currently has 11 inmates on death row.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Oklahoma.
Capital punishment is one of two possible penalties for aggravated murder in the U.S. state of Oregon, with it being required by the Constitution of Oregon.
Capital punishment in Alabama is a legal penalty. Alabama has the highest per capita capital sentencing rate in the United States. In some years, its courts impose more death sentences than Texas, a state that has a population five times as large. However, Texas has a higher rate of executions both in absolute terms and per capita.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of South Dakota.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Mississippi.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of North Carolina.
Capital punishment is currently a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Kansas, although it has not been used since 1965.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Georgia. Georgia reintroduced the death penalty in 1973 after Furman v. Georgia ruled all states' death penalty statutes unconstitutional. The first execution to take place afterwards occurred in 1983.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Montana.
Capital punishment in Delaware was formally abolished in 2024, however it has not been enforced after Delaware’s capital punishment statues were declared unconstitutional by the Delaware Supreme Court on August 2, 2016. The ruling retroactively applies to earlier death sentences, and remaining Delaware death row inmates had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. The capital statute for first-degree murder under Title 11, Chapter 42, Section 09, of the Delaware Code was fully repealed on September 26, 2024.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of South Carolina.
Capital punishment is a legal punishment in Tennessee.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Missouri.
Capital punishment is a legal punishment in Pennsylvania. Despite remaining a legal penalty, there have been no executions in Pennsylvania since 1999, and only three since 1976. In February 2015, Governor Tom Wolf announced a formal moratorium on executions that is still in effect as of 2024, with incumbent Governor Josh Shapiro continuing Wolf's moratorium. However, capital crimes are still prosecuted and death warrants are still issued.
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