TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill Thursday that would eliminate the requirement for unanimous jury recommendations before judges can impose death sentences.
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The Florida House gave the bill final approval last week.
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SB 450 was introduced after a jury decided against sentencing Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz to death last year for the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead and 17 more injured.
Now, just eight of 12 jurors are needed to recommend the death penalty.
WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer says there will likely b an increase in death penalty cases, especially for mass shooters.
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In the past six years, rules around the death penalty in the state have changed multiple times to return to the unanimous jury requirement. However Schaffer says he doesn’t think that’ll be the case moving forward.
“It’s problematic because we have the United States Supreme Court to contend with,” Sheaffer said. “But don’t forget, what do we have on the United States Supreme Court? We have a super-majority of Conservatives...If there’s ever a time and a mood in our country where that might happen, this may be the time...this may be the mood.”
Judges still make the final decision on whether to accept the jury recommendation or sentence the defendant to life with a written order explaining why.
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Opponents of the bill have noted that Florida has the highest number of exonerations from death row in the nation and that most of those exonerated were sent to death row by non-unanimous jury votes.
The new law goes into effect immediately.
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