Andrew Powell
The House Judiciary Committee has advanced a measure that seeks to add aggravating factors for jurors to consider when deciding whether to hand down a death penalty sentence.
The committee passed the bill 20-0 and it will now head to the House floor.
Miami Republican Rep. Mike Redondo introduced legislation (HB 693) that would require jurors to consider certain aggravating factors in capital crimes cases, which include whether the crime was committed during a school event or activity, a religious event, or public government meeting.
“The purpose of HB 693 is to expressly include an additional aggravating factor, which essentially would allow the jury to include that if the capital crime was committed essentially in a place where more than one person was gathered for either a school activity, religious activity or public government meeting, that would be an express aggravating factor that the jury can consider,” Redondo said.
Orlando Democratic Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis asked Redondo to define what would constitute a religious activity.
“It’s not something that is expressly defined; that’s something that the jury would consider based on the circumstances that are presented in the case,” Redondo said in his response.
“I’ve had some questions about that. You know, religious activity, school activity, what exactly does that mean? Certainly, the intention, there are clear examples where that would apply. For example, God forbid there’s a school shooting that takes place in a school, or some type of shooting or other capital felony that occurs within a church, synagogue, mosque, something of that effect.”
Redondo noted that the bill would require at least eight jurors out of 12 to agree to hand down a death sentence before it can be done, further adding that a prayer group or bible study group held in a private home or on non-church grounds would be a religious activity and could be considered by a jury as an aggravating factor.
Joe Harmon, representing the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, opposed the bill, telling the committee that a life sentence would be a harsh enough punishment.
“We agree that these terrible and tragic crimes are gravely evil, we agree also that the state has a duty to punish offenders and protect society,” Harmon said. “However, we oppose the bill because it expands the death penalty. In particular, in the present proposal, there’s good reason to doubt the deterrence effect when we have seen in so many cases the perpetrator is a deeply disturbed individual who intends to die in the act.”
Harmon noted that some executions have not been successful and that it would cost the state more than a life sentence.
“We urge that death is not a good tool of justice in our society, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is already a severe punishment which also protects the public,” Harmon said.
“In Florida the practice of the death penalty has involved the state in erroneous convictions, in botched executions, and it costs the state far more than life imprisonment. Finally, the dignity of the human person is not lost, even after the commission of grave evil.”
Coral Springs Democratic Rep. Dan Daley, who was a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the scene of a deadly school shooting in 2018 by an ex-student that left 17 people dead, supported the bill and recounted how he thought the jury in the case “got it wrong.”
“I’m a graduate of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. I was there the day of the shooting within about 30 minutes. I was on the City Commission in Coral Springs at the time, about half of the student body comes from my city,” Daley said.
“I also am a courtroom prosecutor. … As I sat there and watched the verdict come back for the shooter in the Douglas case, count after count, I think the jury got it wrong. The fact that he’ll get to live out his life in a jail cell when 17 lives were taken viciously, in that case, blows my mind, and hurts.”
