DeSantis Supports Bills Authorizing Death Penalty for Child Rapists

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to Iowa voters gathered at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa, on March 10, 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has backed legislation that would allow capital punishment for pedophiles convicted of sexual battery against a child under the age of 12—a law that would directly challenge the Supreme Court’s landmark Kennedy v. Louisiana ruling.

“We are authorizing the death penalty for child rapists, which is cutting against recent Supreme Court precedent, but I think we’re right on the law,” DeSantis said in an interview with “Good Morning Orlando“ on Monday.

DeSantis said he believes current justices in the nation’s highest court would hear a challenge to the precedent. In 2008, the Supreme Court declared by a 5-4 vote that the death penalty for raping a child violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The Republican governor previously signaled disagreements with the old ruling, explaining that he thinks the decision “wasn’t well thought out” and was “very narrowly decided.

“I don’t think [the ruling] would be upheld when you’re talking about some of the worst of the worst [non-homicidal rape cases],” the 44-year-old said during a news conference in Miami earlier this year.

Additionally, most of the high court’s justices that ruled it unconstitutional to allow capital punishment for convicted child rapists who did not kill their victims have all left the court, either through retirement or death.

“I think the current court would consider a challenge to that,” DeSantis said during Monday’s interview. “My view is, you have some of these people that will be serial rapists of six, seven-year-old kids. I think the death penalty is the only appropriate punishment when you have situations like that.”

‘No Earthly Redemption’

Last week, Florida lawmakers approved two bills that would authorize the death penalty for child rapists, saying an individual committing sexual battery upon a young child destroys the innocence of this child and violates “all standards of decency held by civilized society.”

Senate Bill 1342 (pdf), a bipartisan effort by Sen. Lauren Book, a Democrat, and Sen. Jonathan Martin, a Republican, cleared the Florida Senate Rules Committee on April 11 by unanimous vote, while House Bill 1297 (pdf), sponsored by Republican Rep. Jessica Baker, passed the Florida House of Representatives late on April 13 by a 95-14 vote.

Florida's Democratic State Sen. Lauren Book at the Florida State Capitol Building in Tallahassee, Fla., on Feb. 21, 2018. Don Juan Moore/Getty Images

“There is no earthly redemption for somebody who rapes a small child, only God can save them. And in Florida, we should be eager to arrange that meeting,” Baker said shortly before the bill was passed.

The proposals stipulate that defendants aged 18 or older could only be sentenced to death based on the recommendations of at least eight of 12 jurors. If fewer than eight jurors recommend the death penalty, defendants shall be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

It also requires the jury to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” the existence of at least two aggravating factors to the crime, which must be voted on unanimously.

Aggravating factors include whether the perpetrator was a repeat offender, a designated sexual predator, used a firearm in the act, knowingly created the risk of death, or committed the capital felony on a victim “particularly vulnerable due to age or disability.”

Although the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision has effectively prevented capital punishment for non-homicidal rape since that time, no convicted child rapist who did not kill their victim has actually been executed in the United States since 1964.

Crime Crackdown

If DeSantis signs the measure, Florida will have the lowest death penalty threshold in the nation. The state’s tough-on-crime crackdown comes amid speculation that the GOP governor could be announcing his White House bid soon.

Additionally, DeSantis is also expected to sign into law a second death penalty bill that would no longer require a jury to vote unanimously to condemn an offender to death.

The bill, SB 450, was drafted last year in the wake of Nikolas Cruz receiving life in prison for killing 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. A jury did not unanimously recommend the death penalty, allowing Cruz to serve 34 consecutive life sentences—despite the majority of the victim’s families asking for his death.

Current Florida law requires unanimity among jurors before they can recommend a sentence of death. The bill, which passed the Senate last month before the House overwhelmingly approved it on April 13, would lower that threshold to require just two-thirds of all 12 jurors to recommend a death sentence.

The proposed change would affect only the sentencing process, meaning that a jury would still need a unanimous vote to convict a defendant before moving on to the penalty phase.

From NTD News