Florida’s new supermajority death penalty law is being hailed as a success by Gov. Ron DeSantis, after two recent, non-unanimous, jury recommendations.
Last week, on one 9-3 vote and another 10-2 vote, a jury in Lee County recommended convicted double-murderer Wade Wilson be put to death.
The next day, a Highlands County jury voted 9-3 to recommend that Zephen Xaver be put to death for a massacre at a SunTrust Bank in Sebring in January of 2019.
“This is not a question about whether they are guilty or innocent."
DeSantis started his push for the new law after the Parkland school shooter avoided death row.
"You need a unanimous jury, and you should, for guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The Governor spearheaded legislation last year to allow a supermajority of a jury, 8-4, to recommend the death penalty.
“If you’re not willing to render that punishment, when appropriate, then you shouldn’t be able to deny justice because one juror had these views on it. I think that’s what happened in the parkland,” DeSantis said.
Maria DeLiberato, Executive Director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, believes Wilson’s case could put Florida’s law to the test.
“This is going to be litigated for decades,” DeLiberato said. “When (Wilson) was arrested, unanimity was the law. And then they changed the rules in the middle of his prosecution, basically.”
If there’s one thing that’s consistent about Florida’s death penalty laws, it’s the inconsistency.
In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the death penalty sentence of Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of using a box cutter to kill a coworker at a Pensacola fast food restaurant in 1998.
A judge imposed the death penalty after a 7-to-5 recommendation from the jury.
The state legislature then passed a bill allowing 10-to-2 jury recommendations, but that was overturned by the state Supreme Court.
By 2017, unanimous jury decisions were required.
