Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Scott PowersOctober 12, 2017

Eight months after she lit statewide firestorm debates over the death penalty and Florida government separation of powers, and five weeks after she lost those debates in the Florida Supreme Court, Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala appears at peace. Speaking with a gathering of journalists Thursday morning, the controversial, still-new state attorney for Florida’s 9th […]

Associated PressSeptember 28, 2017

airport-shooter-06.10-Large-e1497098948793.jpg

Lawyers for an Alaska man charged with killing five people and wounding six in a Florida airport mass shooting say he remains mentally fit to proceed in the case. A status hearing is set Thursday in Miami federal court for 27-year-old Esteban Santiago of Anchorage, Alaska, who’s being treated for schizophrenia. His lawyers say in […]

Jim RosicaSeptember 1, 2017

Gov. Rick Scott set the execution of Michael Lambrix, who’s been on Death Row for 33 years, for 6 p.m. Oct. 5, the Governor’s Office announced Friday. The Florida Supreme Court last February delayed his execution after attorneys argued that the state should first determine how to apply a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state’s death penalty […]

Scott PowersSeptember 1, 2017

Having lost her fight in the Florida Supreme Court to prevent death penalty prosecutions in her circuit, Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala vowed Friday to remove herself completely from the decision process. Ayala said her new policy of turning all potential death-penalty cases over to a panel of assistant state attorneys in the 9th Judicial […]

Scott PowersAugust 31, 2017

Gov. Rick Scott has the authority to transfer murder cases away from the office of Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala because she refuses to pursue capital punishments, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Ayala greeted the ruling by declaring she was changing her policy, and would set up a special panel to review the death penalty […]

Joe HendersonAugust 24, 2017

If Mark James Asay is executed tonight, that will be the first time the state of Florida has used capital punishment on a white man for killing a black person. It’s a grim reality that’s worth noting, and I would respectfully disagree with Mark Elliott, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. […]

Associated PressAugust 23, 2017

For the first time in state history, Florida is expecting to execute a white man Thursday for killing a black person — and it plans to do so with the help of a drug that has never been used before in any U.S. execution. Barring a stay, Mark Asay, 53, is scheduled to die by […]

Scott PowersJuly 17, 2017

Gov. Rick Scott has reassigned the cases of two women accused of abusing a three-year-old Orange County boy to death, transferring their cases from Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala to Ocala’s State Attorney Brad King. The transfers are like more than 20 others the governor has reassigned from Ayala to King since March, when Ayala, the […]

Associated PressJuly 3, 2017

headlineImage.adapt_.1460.high_.Texas_death_penalty_111313.1455674663074.jpg

Florida Gov. Rick Scott is set to resume executions after a hiatus of more than 18 months after the U.S. Supreme Court found Florida’s death sentencing procedure was flawed because it allowed judges to reach a different conclusion from juries. Scott rescheduled the execution of Mark Asay for Aug. 24. Asay was originally scheduled to […]

Associated PressJune 29, 2017

The Florida Supreme Court is ordering new sentencing hearings for four inmates currently on the state’s death row, including one of three women residing there. The high court on Thursday threw out the sentences because a jury did not unanimously recommend the death penalty in the cases. The Court ruled last year that death sentences […]

Tag: death penalty
Aleksandar Vucic Image via AP

Aramis Ayala moving on after losing death penalty battle

Lawyers: Florida airport shooting suspect still mentally fit

Rick Scott sets date for next Florida execution

Aramis Ayala takes herself completely out of death penalty decisions

High court backs Rick Scott, Aramis Ayala vows new policy

Joe Henderson: Impending execution raises old questions on death penalty

For the first time in Florida, a white person is set to be executed for killing a black person.

Rick Scott reassigns 2 more Aramis Ayala cases, involving alleged child killers

Florida set to resume executions after 18-month hiatus

Florida Supreme Court throws out 4 death sentences