• State Legislators Advance Bills to Ban Juvenile Death Penalty Just weeks after leg­is­la­tors in Wyoming and South Dakota passed leg­is­la­tion to ban the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers, law­mak­ers in Florida are on a sim­i­lar course that may send a bill that elim­i­nates the death penal­ty for those under the age of 18 to Governor Jeb Bush for sig­na­ture into law. Members of the Florida Senate passed the juve­nile death penal­ty ban by a vote of 26 – 12, and the House is expect­ed to take up the mea­sure lat­er this week. Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, who had been opposed to rais­ing the min­i­mum the age for cap­i­tal offend­ers, has indi­cat­ed that he will allow House mem­bers to ​“vote their con­science” when con­sid­er­ing the bill. The leg­is­la­tion’s House spon­sor, Representative Phillip Brutus of Miami, not­ed, ​“I think it will be a pret­ty strong vote. To invoke the harsh­est penal­ty of all — which is death — when some­body is 17 years old is wrong.” If the Florida leg­is­la­ture pass­es and Governor Bush signs the bill into law, the state will become the 20th in the nation to ban the prac­tice and the third state to enact this pol­i­cy in 2004. New Hampshire’s House and Senate over­whelm­ing­ly vot­ed for a sim­i­lar bill ear­li­er this month, but Governor Craig Benson has vowed to veto the leg­is­la­tion. The Supreme Court will con­sid­er the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the juve­nile death penal­ty this fall when it hears argu­ments in Roper v. Simmons. (Various news sources includ­ing the Sun-Sentinel of Florida and The Union Leader of New Hampshire, April 27, 2004).
  • Governor Jeb Bush signed a bill to pro­hib­it the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty on a defen­dant who suf­fers from men­tal retar­da­tion. The bill — which unan­i­mous­ly passed the Florida Senate in March and was only one vote short of pass­ing the House unan­i­mous­ly in May — does not con­tain a set IQ lev­el, but uses a def­i­n­i­tion that con­sid­ers intel­lec­tu­al func­tion­ing and behav­ior. Under the leg­is­la­tion, a defen­dant, who has already been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death, can peti­tion the tri­al judge to appoint men­tal health experts to deter­mine whether he or she is men­tal­ly retard­ed. Florida is the sec­ond state this year to ban the exe­cu­tion of defen­dants with men­tal retar­da­tion, bring­ing the total num­ber of states pro­hibit­ing such exe­cu­tions to 15 plus the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. Currently, bills to ban such exe­cu­tions are pend­ing the gov­er­nor’s sig­na­ture in Connecticut, Missouri and Texas.
  • On May 4, 2001 the state leg­is­la­ture passed a mea­sure that will allow Floridians to have a chance to put the death penal­ty in the state con­sti­tu­tion. The amend­ment will be con­sid­ered on the November 2002 bal­lot. Besides putting the death penal­ty in the state con­sti­tu­tion, the amend­ment would also make 16-year-olds eli­gi­ble for the death penalty.
  • A bill that will pro­vide pro­ce­dures under which a defen­dant who has been found guilty or who has pled guilty may peti­tion tri­al court to order exam­i­na­tion of DNA evi­dence unan­i­mous­ly passed the House a day after unan­i­mous­ly pass­ing the Senate. The bill is now head­ed to Gov. Bush for signing.
  • The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors sent a pro­pos­al the Florida Supreme Court on February 9, 2001 ask­ing the court to con­sid­er the issue of allow­ing any­one already con­vict­ed of a crime to be giv­en 2 years to seek DNA test­ing. Currently, con­victs have no avenue to seek DNA test­ing to exon­er­ate them unless a request was made with­in 2 years of their con­vic­tion. The court could extend the dead­line, giv­ing inmates an unlim­it­ed amount of time. (Miami Herald, 2/​11/​01)