Florida Legislature Rescinds Unanimous-Jury Requirement in Death Sentencing

Florida is poised to become the state with the nation’s low­est thresh­old for juries to rec­om­mend death sen­tences, after the state leg­is­la­ture passed a bill allow­ing a judge to impose death if at least eight out of twelve jurors agree. Most states, includ­ing Florida, have required a unan­i­mous jury ver­dict to rec­om­mend death. Governor Ron DeSantis (pic­tured) is expect­ed to sign the bill, fol­low­ing the House’s approval on April 13, 2023. Alabama requires at least 10 jurors to approve a death sen­tence. It is like­ly that the Florida leg­is­la­tion will meet chal­lenges in state and federal court.

Opponents of the bill not­ed that Florida has the high­est num­ber of exon­er­a­tions from death row in the nation, at 30. Most of those exon­er­at­ed were sent to death row by non-unan­i­mous jury votes.

DPIC’s read­ing of the leg­is­la­tion indi­cates that, if a jury has not been waived:

1. The jury MUST unan­i­mous­ly find, beyond a rea­son­able doubt, that at least one aggra­vat­ing fac­tor in the statute exists in the case. Otherwise, the defen­dant is not eli­gi­ble for the death penalty.
2. If eli­gi­ble and the jury has at least 8 votes for a death sen­tence, the rec­om­men­da­tion MUST be for death. If there are less than 8 votes for death, the rec­om­men­da­tion MUST be for life without parole.
3. If the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion is for life with­out parole, the judge MUST impose that sentence.
4. If the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion is for death, the judge MAY impose that sen­tence or MAY impose a life sentence.

The judge must pro­vide a writ­ten order explain­ing how the sen­tence was arrived at, includ­ing rea­sons for reject­ing a jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion, if applicable.

The Florida House also vot­ed on April 13 to pass a bill allow­ing the death penal­ty for sex­u­al bat­tery of a child under age 12. The bill has not yet received a vote in the Senate. That mea­sure would vio­late U.S. Supreme Court prece­dent under Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), but some leg­is­la­tors hope it may prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to recon­sid­er the issue.