Bills filed in both the Florida Senate and House that would allow the death penalty for child rapist
A child being raped could easily be seen by most of society as the most heinous of all crimes. Does it deserve the death penalty? Florida Action Committee does not take a stand on this issue, but there are some facts to consider.
Separate bills in both the house and senate have been filed that would eliminate the requirement for unanimous verdicts by juries to implement the death penalty. A jury vote of 8 to 4 would be the minimum vote required to impose the death penalty.
According to ABC First Coast News, public defender Teri Sopp thinks these bills are a bad idea as “Florida leads the nation with 30 innocent people exonerated from death row since 1973 – one third of the number of people who have been executed…It (the death penalty) is administered unfairly to persons of color, persons with intellectual disabilities, and persons with mental illness.”
Florida statutes does NOT allow courts to consider dementia.
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The State of Florida’s 9 Cruel and Unusual Punishments.
1.) Florida’s Sex Offender Registry.
2.) Florida’s Career Criminal/Habitual Felony Offender/Repeat Offender Registry.
3.) Florida’s Death Penalty/Capital Punshment.
4.) Florida’s Natural Life Sentencing Without Parole of Naturally Life Sentenced Offenders. (Natural Life Sentences Should Have A Maximum 25 Year Cap.)
5.) Florida’s Civil Commitment of those deemed to be Sexual Predators.
6.) Florida’s Civil Commitment of those deemed to be Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity.
7.) Florida’s Direct Filing Against Minors to Prosecute and Convict them as Adults.
8.) Florida’s use of Minimum Mandatory Sentencing.
9.) Florida’s use of the Indefinite Closed Management/Indefinite Solitary Confinement of its Incarcerated Persons.
Let’s not forget #10 subjecting the people to sheriff Grady fudd and those like him droning on and on about all those they entrap in they’re bs. stings and how great they are.
Egregious/Outrageous Conduct-Entrapment isnt a Cruel and Unusual Punishment its an Illegal and Unconstitutional Tactic to get people Wrongfully Convicted.
Patt
A few weeks ago I came across “29 things rich people have no concept of and if your not rich it’s incredibly infuriating “
# 16
“That we don’t have the same rights as rich people. I mean yeah the same laws apply to everyone ,but not everyone can afford lawyers or are able to skip work to go to court. And landlords and bosses Know this and will drag any procedure as long as possible until you quit.”
I can testify it’s true and might add prosecutors also know this. When I was charged and going through court they kept postponing it 3 times and 9 months. I would have to take off work plus pay my attorney for the day , just to get to Court waiting for my case just to find out the prosecution had it postponed. After the third time and 9 months later ,I caved in and plea bargained . My job was at stake and lawyer bills were mounting out of control. Much cheaper to settle than to keep fighting. Plus my attorney told me I had no chance of winning because the judge wouldn’t believe my word over theirs.
I’m on the fence when it comes to my opinion of the death penalty. I don’t see it as a deterrent. It certainly deters the convicted person from ever doing it again, but does nothing to deter others. That’s why all states that have the death penalty still have people who commit murder. The death penalty, in my opinion, is just a way for the state to “get even”.
Having the death penalty as a punishment for child rape is not going to stop future child rapes, just like current laws on the books in every State is not going to deter future crimes.
The forcible rape of a child is indeed a very heinous crime and the guilty person needs to be severely punished, but I think the death penalty should be reserved only for those convicted of murder, sedition, and treason.
Ever since the federal government’ got involved in this in 1994 it was an open invitation to all the states and politicians to add to it and a free public band wagon to gather more votes. None of the laws have saved a single child only ways to help politicians get votes without doing anything but sponsor a bill they can sign their name to. Even the SCOTUS has shied away from it because if they take it up again they would have to admit to how they screwed it up the last couple times.
Florida law already allows the death penalty for rape of children 11 and younger on paper. This was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 1985ish (and a similar Louisiana law was struck down by SCOTUS in 2008). So now the mandatory sentence for child rape in Florida is life in prison without the possibility of parole. Although I doubt that the average person in Florida is remotely aware of this, I’d expect the governor to be more knowledgable of this stuff than the average person.
I’m not sure what the legislature is trying to accomplish. They’re just changing Florida law to what it already was.
Florida has been undermining the right of the accused in cases dealing with children for decades. I believe the accused no longer has the right to face his accuser. The alleged victim can now testify via camera. This makes it even easier to manipulate children to say what you want then to say as they don’t see the person they are accusing and are not told what will happen to the person that they are accusing should they be convicted. They may think it is a relatively harmless thing they are saying because they are manipulated. It’s definitely witness tampering, but the state gets away with it as they have sole access to the alleged victim from the moment the accusation is made. Add the impaired ability to defend yourself to the death penalty and what will you likely have? Even more people taking a plea bargain as to risk life is one thing, to risk death is totally another.
Another point to be made is that at least with murder there is a dead body. With child rape you don’t even have that. It could just be a nasty divorce or some other custody thing. But once the accusation is made, you are guilty. You likely will have no bond which means no job which means, unless you are incredibly lucky, you will have an overburdened public defender pushing you to take a plea. And don’t give me any crap about physical evidence. There was zero in my case. They claimed I touched inappropriately and charged me with capital sexual battery. So, entirely based on someone’s testimony, you could be on death row.
There is way too much room for innocent people to be killed in order for this law to be allowed to pass.
Jim
You are so right on which I can testify to in my own experience. The kids that made up the accusations against me made up a story to keep from getting into trouble for messing around on private vacant property. Which I think was not something they came up with on their own but was suggested by someone else. The accusations weren’t even of contact but seeing me naked in my house through a small window on the side of my house. But I was never allowed to find out what they were doing or what they saw because a gag order was immediately filed. So they could not be questioned by anyone else. So I was never allowed to find out for myself what was going on.
There was no physical evidence ,no accusations of contact, no opportunity to even find out what they were saying so I could defend myself. All I was told is , I was charged with Lewd and Lascivious. Whatever that means . So vague it could be applied to almost anything without any evidence. Since it was all based on hearsay their word against mine I had no choice but to plea or risk going to jail.
Now that these then kids are around 40 and would probably not be afraid to tell the truth , I can’t find anyone that would be willing to question them and take it back to court, because lawyers tell me , because I plea bargained I cannot go back to court.
The system is rigged. So now what was originally a misdemeanor, no mention or knowledge of a sex registry, is because of constantly changing laws, I’m now classified a tier 3 with no chance of removal from the registry and all its restrictions. Reporting in every 90 days plus the month of my birthday and 6 months after,or go to jail. That is sometimes 6 times a year to the police station 20 miles away.
And should it somehow pass, there needs to be an immediate injunction before this law is used to pressure anyone into a plea bargain after which, if this law is struck down in the courts, they would not be able to receive relief because the took the plea.
I’m not a fan of the death penalty for several reasons. It cost more than life, there have been cases where the state was wrong, and if a punishment needs to be so severe that death is considered why not let them live old and die alone. Some charges deserve life, or if they are going to give the death penalty, death. If a child is genuinely raped then life should be the charge. I’m actually more in favor of longer sentences and no public registry. The pubic complains about light sentences for sex crimes because the judge uses the registry as punishment. With the registry we are doing life on the installment plan. So, sure death but preferably life for true rape of a child. I see no issues with it
I thank FAC for not wading into this issue.