Category Archives: Death Penalty
Polls Show That Floridians Prefer Unanimity or No Death Penalty At All
The Sun Sentinel ran an important article recently on the public’s reaction to changes in Florida’s death penalty law. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Florida’s majority-rule death-sentence recommendation from juries was unconstitutional, and the Florida Supreme Court struck down the “ten out of 12 jurors must recommend death” rule, the legislature passed… Read More »
Those Wrongfully Convicted Speak Out Against Faster Death Penalty Appeals
Unfortunately, Florida leads the country in wrongful death penalty convictions. According to some sources, close to 30 people have been exonerated from death row due to DNA evidence, prosecutorial misconduct, and other new evidence. In addition, five years ago, the governor signed a requirement that executions be hastened, occurring in 180 days. Now, some… Read More »
A Look at the Case against the Accused Florida Shooter
The tragedy that unfolded at one high school in Florida on February 14th left 17 dead and many others injured. While many are focused on how we prevent needless violence like this in the future, below, we provide some background on how the trial against accused shooter and criminal defendant Nikolas Cruz might unfold…. Read More »
New Book Sheds Light on How & Why Death Penalty Does Not Work
Between the 1990s and 2016, death sentences dropped by roughly 90 percent, in part due to the decrease in homicide rates, but also because experienced criminal defense attorneys are successfully arguing against it in defense of their clients. A new book—titled “End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice”—written… Read More »
Can Florida Prosecutors Seek The Death Penalty?
Since the January 2016 Supreme Court ruling in Hurst v. Florida, death penalty legislation in Florida has been in a state of uncertainty. The Supreme Court ruled Florida’s capital punishment sentencing laws are unconstitutional, noting that judges in the state have too much power in determining a sentence. The ruling has essentially put all… Read More »
Florida’s New Death Penalty Law
In the United States, some 31 states, including Florida, still use the death penalty for defendants convicted of certain crimes. But in January 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida’s system of imposing that penalty for unconstitutionally allowing a judge to substitute his or her own findings of fact for the jury’s conclusions,… Read More »
