Florida Capital Resource Center

Posted December 12, 2011

For a second year in a row, Senator Thad Altman is hoping that one major problem with Florida's capital sentencing scheme can be corrected this legislative session.  SB 772 would require unanimous juries to recommend a death sentence, something the Florida Supreme Court has been recommending the legislature do since 2005. 

Out of the 34 states that retain the death penalty, Florida and Alabama are the only two that do not already have this unanimity requirement.  However, Florida stands alone by allowing just a simple majority of 7 jurors to recommend death; Alabama requires no less than 10 jurors to do the same.

Sen. Altman proposed a similar bill last legislative session, but the bill was not heard in even a single committee meeting.  Nonetheless, he remains hopeful that this year might prove different.  The bill has drawn support from the FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, the Florida Catholic Conference, and now, of course, the Florida Capital Resource Center.  However, most familiar with system agree that it is problematic, which is why former State Attorney Harry Shorstein and former Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero - a Gov. Jeb Bush appointee - both also support the measure.

As Justice Cantero said to The Ledger last month, "This is an issue about rationality, about making the justice system rational and making sure that only those that are guilty are convicted and only those who commit the most egregious murders are sentenced to death."

Click here to read Sen. Altman's bill as well as the related House version.

Click here to read the full article from The Ledger discussing the bill.

Posted November 23, 2011

After concluding that the "death penalty as practiced in Oregon is neither fair nor just," Governor John Kitzhaber has declared that there will be no more executions in Oregon while he is governor. 

The news comes at a time when death row inmate Gary Haugen has waived his right to several appeals and asked to be executed.  Haugen was convicted of murder in 1981 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.  However, in 2003, while serving that life sentence, he was convicted of slaying a fellow inmate and sentenced to death.  After waiving several appeals, Judge Joseph Guimond signed the death warrant, scheduling Haugen to be executed by lethal injection on December 6.  While the Oregon Supreme Court upheld that death warrant late Monday, November 21, Gov. Kitzhaber granted Haugen a "temporary reprieve" the next morning, one that will last for the duration of his term in office.   

After careful reflection, Gov. Kitzhaber announced that "we can no longer ignore the contradictions and inequities of our current system."  Though he said he personally favors replacing the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole, he challenged the legislature and the citizens of Oregon to engage in a "long overdue reevaluation of our current policy and our system of capital punishment."

"It is time for Oregon to consider a different approach.  I refuse to be a part of this compromised and inequitable system any longer; and I will not allow further executions while I am Governor."

Click here to read the full press release.

Posted October 12, 2011

Less than one month after Representative Rehwinkel Vasilinda announced she has filed legislation to repeal Florida’s death penalty, Representative Brad Drake has filed some legislation of his own: to bring the firing squad back to Florida.  Rep. Drake seeks to eliminate lethal injection as one of Florida’s methods of execution and replace it with a firing squad.

As the law stands now, lethal injection is the default method of execution in Florida.  Prisoners, however, have the option of electing to be executed by electrocution instead.  HB 325, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz, would make electrocution the default method of execution, allowing prisoners to elect a firing squad alternative.

Click here to read the text of Rep. Drake’s HB 325.

Posted September 27, 2011

Representative Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda announced today that she will be introducing legislation next session that would repeal the death penalty in Florida.  Filed as HB 4051, Rep. Rehwinkel Vasilinda cites both the unjust application and the astronomical cost of maintaining the death penalty as her motivation for filing the bill, a cost that has been estimated at $51 million annually.

In her press release, Rep. Rehwinkel Vasilinda said, "I'm not in the business of dispensing vengeance.  As a state representative, I am in the business of making decisions to help keep Floridians safe from crime while spending taxpayer money prudently.  HB 4051 will achieve both goals."

Click here to read the full press release.

Posted June 26, 2011

Federal Judge Jose Martinez has determined that Paul Hawthorne Evans deserves a new sentencing hearing before an untainted jury because Florida's capital sentencing statute violates the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Ring v. Arizona. 

The order came down on Monday, June 20, 2011, and is sure to be appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.  Judge Martinez found that Florida's sentencing statute, Fla. Stat. s. 921.141, violates the holding of Ring v. Arizona for several reasons, but primarily because it provides for the judge - not the jury - to make findings of fact as to the existence of aggravating circumstances. 

In Florida, only a simple majority of jurors is required to make a recommendation of death.  However, the jury is not required to specify which aggravating circumstances they found to exist.  This means that it is possible that not even one single aggravator was found to exist by a majority of jurors beyond a reasonable doubt; instead, it is possible that several jurors found one aggravating circumstance while the others found a different aggravating circumstance, thus comprising a “false” majority.  Furthermore, because the jury's recommendation is not binding on the judge, and the judge is required to make the actual findings, it is possible that the judge is finding entirely different aggravating circumstances than the jury.  Such a procedure, according to Martinez, cannot be reconciled with Ring, which requires that any finding of fact that increases the maximum sentence from life to death be found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

Judge Martinez further mentioned that a judge's ability to reject a jury's recommendation for a life sentence and impose a sentence of death instead is likely also unconstitutional, though notes that issue is not before the court and will have to wait for another day.

 Click here to read Judge Martinez' Order from Evans v. McNeil (relevant portion begins on page 78)