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State & Federal

Florida

DPIC’s page dis­cussing Hurst v. Florida, and links to charts of the cas­es that have been decid­ed and cas­es that are still pending.

History of the Death Penalty

Prior to 1923, exe­cu­tions in Florida were car­ried out by the coun­ty, rather than the state. Florida changed exe­cu­tion meth­ods from hang­ing to elec­tro­cu­tion, when it placed exe­cu­tions under state control.

Timeline

1827 – First known exe­cu­tion in Florida, Benjamin Donica hung for murder.

1923 – A bill places all exe­cu­tions in Florida under state (rather than local) juris­dic­tion, and sub­sti­tutes hang­ing for the electric chair.

1972 – The Supreme Court strikes down the death penal­ty in Furman v. Georgia. Florida sub­se­quent­ly pass­es a new cap­i­tal punishment statute.

1976 – The Supreme Court rein­states the death penal­ty when it upholds Georgia’s statute in Gregg v. Georgia. In Proffitt v. Florida, the Court also upholds the Florida statute.

1979 – Florida is the first state to car­ry out a non-vol­un­tary exe­cu­tion post-Gregg when it exe­cutes John Spenkelink.

1990s – Florida botch­es the elec­tric chair exe­cu­tions of Jesse Tafero, Pedro Medina, and Allen Lee Davis and sub­se­quent­ly begins using lethal injec­tion as its execution method.

2002 – Aileen Wuornos, called the first female ser­i­al killer by the media, is executed.

2016 – Florida statu­to­ri­ly abol­ish­es judi­cial over­ride, the process by which tri­al judges were per­mit­ted to impose death sen­tences despite an advi­so­ry jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion for life.

2017 – Florida statu­to­ri­ly abol­ish­es non-unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tions for death and requires that the sen­tenc­ing jury unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend a death sen­tence before the tri­al judge may impose a death sentence.

2020 — The Florida Supreme Court reverse a long-held prece­dent requir­ing cap­i­tal appeals to be reviewed for pro­por­tion­al­i­ty. The court announced that it will no longer con­duct pro­por­tion­al­i­ty reviews which are intend­ed to guard against the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty in cas­es that do not warrant it.

2022 — A non-unan­i­mous Florida jury returns a ver­dict of life with­out parole for NIkolas Cruz, a teen offend­er con­vict­ed of killing 17 peo­ple in the shoot­ing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

2022 — Two secre­cy bills unan­i­mous­ly pass Florida’s crim­i­nal jus­tice com­mit­tees in the House and Senate. These bills exempt the Florida Department of Corrections from hav­ing to dis­close to the pub­lic the com­pa­nies that pro­vide lethal injec­tion drugs or the peo­ple who admin­is­ter the drugs dur­ing the execution.

2023 — Governor Ron DeSantis signs a bill end­ing the require­ment for juries to vote unan­i­mous­ly to rec­om­mend cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in a cap­i­tal felony case in order for a judge to sen­tence a defen­dant to death. An 8‑juror major­i­ty is now need­ed for a death sen­tence to be imposed.

2023 — Governor Ron DeSantis sign leg­is­la­tion allow­ing the death penal­ty to be sought in sex­u­al bat­tery cas­es against a minor under the age of 12.

Famous Cases

Aileen Wuornos was exe­cut­ed on October 9, 2002 for the mur­der of Richard Mallory, but she had also received death sen­tences for 5 oth­er mur­ders, and con­fessed to a sev­enth mur­der, though she was­n’t tried for it. Her case gar­nered exten­sive media atten­tion, and she was labeled America’s first female ser­i­al killer. Wuornos suf­fered from severe men­tal ill­ness, but the state of Florida found her com­pe­tent to waive her remain­ing appeals and be exe­cut­ed. Wuornos’ case was the inspi­ra­tion for the Oscar-win­ning film ​“Monster.”

Notable Exonerations

Florida has had 30 exon­er­a­tions from death row, more than any oth­er state. You can read about all of Florida’s exon­er­a­tions on DPIC’s Innocence page.

The first exon­er­a­tion in the United States after Furman v. Georgia was David Keaton. On the basis of mis­tak­en iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and coerced con­fes­sions, Keaton was sen­tenced to death for mur­der­ing an off duty deputy sher­iff dur­ing a rob­bery. The State Supreme Court reversed the con­vic­tion and grant­ed Keaton a new tri­al because of new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence. Charges were dropped and he was released after the actu­al killer was iden­ti­fied and convicted.

Delbert Tibbs, a for­mer Theology stu­dent, was con­vict­ed in 1974 for a mur­der of Terry Milloy and the rape of Milloy’s trav­el­ing com­pan­ion, Cynthia Nadeau. Nadeau picked Tibbs out of a line­up and tes­ti­fied against him, even though he did not match her orig­i­nal descrip­tion of the per­pe­tra­tor. The Florida Supreme Court ordered a retri­al, say­ing that the vic­tim was an unre­li­able wit­ness. Prosecutors dropped the charges against Tibbs and he was released in 1982.

Joseph Green Brown was sen­tenced to death in 1974 for the mur­der of Earlene Treva Barksdale. The case hinged on the tes­ti­mo­ny of Ronald Floyd, who lat­er admit­ted he had lied. Jurors nev­er heard tes­ti­mo­ny from an FBI bal­lis­tics expert who said a gun linked to Brown could not have fired the bul­let that killed Barksdale. In 1983, Brown came with­in 15 hours of exe­cu­tion before a Florida judge issued a stay, but wait­ed two and a half more years before his con­vic­tion was over­turned, and an addi­tion­al year before charges were dropped.

In 1982, Juan Ramos was con­vict­ed of the mur­der of an acquain­tance. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Ramos to the crime, but lat­er-dis­cred­it­ed evi­dence from a scent-track­ing dog con­vinced the jury to con­vict him. A judge over­ruled the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion for a life sen­tence and sen­tenced Ramos to death. In 1985, the tele­vi­sion news show 20/​20 exposed the unre­li­a­bil­i­ty of scent-track­ing evi­dence. The fol­low­ing year, the Florida Supreme Court over­turned Ramos’ con­vic­tion, say­ing that canine scent-track­ing was com­plete­ly untest­ed. At a retri­al in 1987, Ramos was acquitted.

Frank Lee Smith spent 15 years on death row before he died of can­cer in 2000. Just months after Smith’s death, DNA test­ing cleared him of the crime for which he had been con­vict­ed in 1985. The sole wit­ness in the case had recant­ed her tes­ti­mo­ny in 1989, iden­ti­fy­ing Eddie Lee Mosely, who was lat­er impli­cat­ed by DNA testing.

On October 12, 2015, the Florida Department of Corrections released Derral Hodgkins from cus­tody after the Florida Supreme Court acquit­ted Hodges of all charges in the stab­bing death of his for­mer girl­friend. The tri­al judge had imposed a death sen­tence for the con­vic­tion fol­low­ing a 7 – 5 vote by the jury to rec­om­mend death. No eye­wit­ness­es placed Hodgkins in the vicin­i­ty at or around the time of the mur­der and the evi­dence against him was completely circumstantial.

With new­ly dis­cov­ered con­fes­sions and DNA evi­dence point­ing to the prosecution’s chief wit­ness as the actu­al killer, Seminole County, Florida pros­e­cu­tors dropped all charges against Honduran nation­al Clemente Javier Aguirre in 2018. Aguirre was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2006 for the mur­der of two neigh­bors. He stead­fast­ly main­tained his inno­cence, say­ing he had dis­cov­ered the women after they had been killed. He did not report the mur­ders to author­i­ties, he said, because he was an undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grant and feared depor­ta­tion. On October 27, 2016, the Florida Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly vacat­ed Aguirre’s con­vic­tion and grant­ed him a new trial.

Clifford Williams, Jr. was exon­er­at­ed in 2019, forty-two years after he and his nephew were wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed of mur­der and he was sen­tenced to death. Submitting a report from its Conviction Integrity Unit that found ​“no cred­i­ble evi­dence of guilt and … cred­i­ble evi­dence of inno­cence,” Duval County pros­e­cu­tors asked a Jacksonville tri­al court to dis­miss all charges against Williams, 76 years old, and his nephew, Nathan Myers, 61.

Notable Commutations/​Clemencies

Governor Bob Graham grant­ed six clemen­cies dur­ing his term as gov­er­nor. No oth­er Florida gov­er­nor since 1976 has grant­ed clemen­cy to a death row inmate. Learie Leo Alford and Jesse Rutledge received clemen­cy from Graham due to their possible innocence.

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

Florida was the first state to rein­tro­duce the death penal­ty after Furman v. Georgia struck down all exist­ing death penalty laws.

Other Interesting Facts

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled Florida’s death penal­ty prac­tices uncon­sti­tu­tion­al numer­ous times, including:

  • In Enmund v. Florida, in 1982, the Court ruled that Florida vio­lat­ed the Eighth Amendment when it attempt­ed to apply the death penal­ty to defen­dants who were minor par­tic­i­pants in a crime that result­ed in a mur­der, but who did not them­selves kill, attempt to kill, or intend to kill the victim.
  • In Hitchcock v. Dugger, in 1987, the Court — in a unan­i­mous opin­ion writ­ten by Justice Antonin Scalia — ruled Florida’s death penal­ty statute uncon­sti­tu­tion­al because it did not allow the advi­so­ry jury or the sen­tenc­ing judge to con­sid­er rea­sons the defen­dant offered to spare his life unless those rea­sons were list­ed among the mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors that the leg­is­la­ture had set out in the state’s death penalty statute.
  • In Hall v. Florida, in 2014, the Court ruled that Florida had uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly impaired the enforce­ment of the Eighth Amendment pro­hi­bi­tion against sub­ject­ing per­sons with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty to the death penal­ty by apply­ing a hard IQ-cut­off score of 70 to deny death-row pris­on­ers’ intel­lec­tu­al disability claims.
  • In Hurst v. Florida, in 2016, the Court ruled that Florida’s sen­tenc­ing statute vio­lat­ed the Sixth Amendment right to a jury tri­al because it required that a judge, rather than a jury, make find­ings of fact as to whether the pros­e­cu­tion had proven that a defen­dant is eli­gi­ble to face the death penalty.

Until 2016, Florida was one of three states that per­mit­ted tri­al judges to impose the death penal­ty based upon a jury’s non-unan­i­mous rec­om­men­da­tion for death. In Hurst v. State, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the prac­tice vio­lat­ed the state’s con­sti­tu­tion, and the Florida leg­is­la­ture, in March 2017, adopt­ed a new sen­tenc­ing law requir­ing a unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tion for death before the judge could impose a death sentence.

Florida allows inmates to choose whether they will be exe­cut­ed by elec­tro­cu­tion or lethal injection.

The youngest inmates exe­cut­ed in Florida were both 16 years old. Willie Clay was exe­cut­ed on December 29, 1941 and James Davis was exe­cut­ed on October 9, 1944.

Alligator on the Hillsborough River near Tampa. Photo by Richard Dieter.

Resources

  • Florida Department of Corrections Death Row Information
  • American Bar Association Florida Death Penalty Assessment Report
  • Department of Corrections
  • Department of Corrections Death Row Roster
  • Prosecutors
  • Public defend­er’s office
  • Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
  • Victims’ ser­vices

Florida Execution Totals Since 1976


News & Developments


News

Apr 29, 2025

Florida Court Refuses to Stop Execution for Mentally Ill Veteran Jeffrey Hutchinson

Jeffrey Hutchinson is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Florida on May 1, 2025, despite a long­stand­ing men­tal ill­ness and his attorney’s claim that he is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. On April 24, 2025, attor­neys for the Gulf War vet­er­an filed a motion in Bradford County Circuit Court seek­ing a stay of his sched­uled exe­cu­tion and request­ing an evi­den­tiary hear­ing to assess their client’s com­pe­ten­cy. Mr. Hutchinson has suf­fered from a delu­sion­al dis­or­der for decades, with a…

Read More

News

Mar 24, 2025

Four Executions in Three Days Spotlight Constitutional Concerns About Death Penalty

In a three-day span from March 18 to March 20, four men were exe­cut­ed in four dif­fer­ent states. Two of the men put to death, in Louisiana and Arizona, were the first exe­cut­ed in their state in years. While the close tim­ing of the exe­cu­tions result­ed from inde­pen­dent state-lev­­el deci­sions and indi­vid­u­al­ized legal devel­op­ments rather than any coor­di­nat­ed nation­al effort, all four exe­cu­tions raised seri­ous con­sti­tu­tion­al con­cerns. ### March 18: Jessie Hoffman (LA) On…

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News

Feb 04, 2025

Florida Legislature Passes Unconstitutional Bill that Mandates the Death Penalty for ​“Unauthorized Aliens”

On January 28, 2025, the Florida Legislature passed an immi­gra­tion bill that includes a pro­vi­sion man­dat­ing the auto­mat­ic impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty for​“unau­tho­rized aliens” con­vict­ed of a cap­i­tal offense, despite long­stand­ing U.S. prece­dent and inter­na­tion­al law pro­hibit­ing manda­to­ry death sen­tences. The bill was intro­duced dur­ing a short spe­cial leg­isla­tive ses­sion called by Governor Ron DeSantis (pic­tured), leav­ing lit­tle to no time for public…

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News

Dec 16, 2024

Florida Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments Challenging Non-Unanimity Sentencing Standard

Urbantallahassee, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://​cre​ativecom​mons​.org/​l​i​c​e​n​s​e​s​/​b​y​— s​a/​4.0>, via Wikimedia…

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News

Aug 14, 2024

Florida’s Governor DeSantis Schedules First Execution of 2024 for Dozier Reform School Survivor After 10-Month Execution Hiatus

Photo cour­tesy of friends…

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View More

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: Yes
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 105
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include fed­er­al and military executions): 347
  • Current Death Row Population: 283
  • Women on Death Row: 1
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 30
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 6
  • Date of Reinstatement (fol­low­ing Furman v. Georgia): December 8, 1972
  • First Execution After Reinstatement: 1979
  • Location of Death Row/​Executions: Florida State Prison, Raiford
  • Capital: Tallahassee
  • Region: South
  • Population: 21,538,187*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 5.22
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option: Yes
  • Can a defen­dant get death for a felony in which s/​he was not respon­si­ble for the murder?: Yes
  • Method of Execution: Choice of Injection or Electrocution
  • How is Sentence Determined?: Jury rec­om­men­da­tion of at least 8 – 4 in favor of death
  • Clemency Process: Governor has the author­i­ty to grant clemen­cy on the advice of the Board of Executive Clemency
  • Governor: Ron DeSantis
Upcoming Executions

Upcoming Executions

Information about scheduled executions around the country

Innocence

Innocence

For every 8.2 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in the Unit­ed States in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty, one per­son on death row has been exon­er­at­ed.

State-By-State

State-By-State

States With and Without the Death Penalty

DPI Fact Sheet

DPI Fact Sheet

PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty

More Information


Innocence Database

Execution Database

Death Penalty Census Database

Death Penalty Information Center
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