Raoul Cantera (pic­tured), a for­mer Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, said the state should fol­low the prac­tice of almost every oth­er death penal­ty state and require juries to be unan­i­mous when rec­om­mend­ing a death sen­tence. Cantera also said that a a com­pre­hen­sive review of the state’s death penal­ty is ​“long over­due” and should begin by con­sid­er­ing the rec­om­men­da­tions of a 2006 American Bar Association report on the state’s death penal­ty. Mark Schlakman, who was a mem­ber of the team that pre­pared the ABA report, joined Justice Cantera in call­ing for changes to the state’s sys­tem. Florida may have as many as 135 death penal­ty cas­es that could be moved close to exe­cu­tion under the state’s new Timely Justice Act. Recently, Florida has imposed more death sen­tences than any oth­er state, and has had more exon­er­a­tions than any oth­er state since 1973. 

(R. Cantera and M. Schlakman, ​“State’s death-penal­ty over­haul: Require juries to be unan­i­mous,” Orlando Sentinel op-ed, August 27, 2013). See Arbitrariness and New Voices.

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