Fox News
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is establishing himself as a “tough on crime” governor, signing three bills at a “Law & Order” press conference in Titusville, Florida on Monday.
One of the bills will allow the death penalty in child rape convictions of a child under the age of 12, defying U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
The second bill also serves to protect children. The measures will impose further penalties for fentanyl and other drug-related crimes affecting children.
The third bill signed by the governor requires the Florida Supreme Court to “develop a uniform bond schedule for state courts to follow and bars a chief judge from setting bond below the schedule. It also forbids a person from being released before his or her first court appearance if charged with a violent or heinous crime.”
The state of Florida is focused on protecting its citizens from the lawlessness resulting from Democrat policies like bail reform.
“The other thing we’re doing is making clear that in Florida we stand for the protection of children. And unfortunately, in our society, you have very heinous sex crimes that are committed against children under the age of 12 years old.
“These are really the worst of the worst. And what happens is, the perpetrators of these crimes are often times serial offenders,” DeSantis said at the press conference.
“If they do that once, chances are they will do it again unless they’re stopped. Unless they’re incapacitated. We really believe that part of a just society is to have appropriate punishment. And so, if you commit a crime that is really, really heinous, you should have the ultimate punishment.”
When these types of people get a slap on the wrist, they go out and commit the same crime over and over.
The possibility of receiving a death penalty sentence hanging over their heads is a great way to deter criminals.
Bail reform, on the other hand, sends a message that the government is not serious about punishing criminals.
Will the new bill hold up in court? According to Fox News, “In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment in the U.S. Constitution bars the death penalty for child rape.”
“We think that that decision was wrong. We think that in the worst of the worst cases, the only appropriate punishment is the ultimate punishment. And so, this bill sets up a procedure to be able to challenge that precedent,” DeSantis said.
“And to be able to say that in Florida, we think that the worst of the worst crimes deserve the worst of the worst punishment.”
Fox News reports that the legislation will take effect on October 1, 2023, authorizing the state to pursue the death penalty when an “adult is convicted of sexually battering a child under 12 and provides a framework in the state’s capital punishment laws for prosecutors to do so.”
The bill had bipartisan support in the Florida Legislature.
The governor touted these three bills as a victory. “We’re really delivering a big agenda,” he said. “So this is one important – but admittedly very small part – of an overall large agenda and very bold agenda that’s really setting the terms of the debate for the country, quite frankly.”
