Gov. Ron DeSantis says that he has three particularly personal reasons for approving a law that permits a supermajority verdict for the execution of pedophiles, in the form of his children Madison, Mason, and Mamie.
“I’m sensitive because we have a 6-, a 5-, and a 3-year-old running around the house and the idea that somebody would harm these children the way these pedophiles do, it’s disgusting,” DeSantis said at a tour stop sponsored by the DeSantis-aligned Never Back Down super PAC in Greenville, South Carolina.
“There are times where some people will commit really bad crimes, maybe heat of passion, and it doesn’t excuse. They need to be held accountable. But I just think these people that are serial pedophiles, the amount of evil that goes into that is something that it’s a proper expression of our community to say that they deserve the ultimate punishment.”
The Governor noted that Florida actually is “leaning in an issue and challenging some of the current jurisprudence,” saying that a reason the state passed the law was to get the current court to reconsider a 5-4 verdict that was a “wrong decision” in a previous case.
“If you have somebody who is preying on these kids and they’re raping kids that will impact those kids for the rest of their lives, those kids will never be able to live normal lives ever again. And you have some of these people that will do this to a dozen kids, 20 kids, 25 kids. Are you trying to tell me that just letting them sit in prison is adequate punishment?”
HB 1297, a bill allowing for the execution of rapists of children under the age of 12 without jury unanimity, was passed by the Senate and House this spring with strong majorities of both Republicans and Democrats.
It contravenes cases Buford v. State of Florida and Kennedy v. Louisiana, deliberately positioning Florida law as a challenge to the current legal consensus, and is the second law passed opening up the door to eight jurors being able to vote to execute someone guilty of a monstrous crime. SB 450, which previously passed the Senate, would allow eight out of 12 jurors to impose capital punishment in murder cases, making Florida the fourth state not to require unanimity.
DeSantis expressed interest in opening up executions to non-unanimous jury decisions earlier this year, lamenting the life sentence given to the mass murderer responsible for the 2018 Parkland massacre.
“Fine, have a supermajority. But you can’t just say one person. So maybe eight out of 12 have to agree? Or something. But we can’t be in a situation where one person can just derail this,” DeSantis told the Florida Sheriff’s Association (FSA) in January.
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