Is the Death Sentence Dying Out in Florida?
Posted Dec. 21, 2015 04:15 am | Public News Service
TALLAHASSEE, FL - There are signs capital punishment may be dying out in Florida, as only a handful of new death sentences were handed down this year.
In
1991, Florida returned a record 45 death sentences, but
less than a quarter century later, the number is down to
nine.
Mark Elliott, executive director of Floridians for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty, says that represents
a significant shift.
"This is a reflection of a positive change in public
opinion and increased awareness on the part of judges,
juries and the public about just what the death penalty
state program is and what the flaws are," he states.
Elliott says one of those flaws is that the state allows
a non-unanimous jury to recommend the death penalty -
one of only three states to do so.
He says Florida's decline in the use of capital
punishment is part of a larger trend, with the national
number of death sentences also dropping.
Elliott says the fact that capital punishment is still
used at all in this country puts the U.S. on a list that
would make many Americans cringe when it comes to human
rights.
"The countries year in and year out for decades that
have been the primary users of the death penalty, the
most extreme users of execution, have been China, Iran,
Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United States," he points
out.
Critics of capital punishment also cite the high cost of
the program, as well as the number of wrongful
convictions that are overturned each year.
A new report from the non-partisan Death Penalty
Information Center says Florida is one of just six
states to carry out executions in 2015.
Photos/graphics and links added by the Observer
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