How Florida Republicans are seeking to expand the death penalty: report

06 March 2023

Among NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) countries, the United States is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to the death penalty. Most NATO members, from Canada to a long list of European countries, have long since abolished the death penalty — unlike the U.S. Moreover, the death penalty has, according to World Population Review, been abolished in Mexico, Honduras, Argentina, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Colombia and other Latin America countries.

In 2021, World Population Review reported, only eight countries had more executions than the U.S., ranging from Mainland China (#1) and Iran (#2) to Saudi Arabia (#4). Yet much of the U.S. has been rethinking the death penalty.

According to France's Le Monde, only six states in the U.S. had executions in 2022: Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arizona, Missouri and Mississippi. All of those states are deeply Republican except Arizona, which has evolved into a swing state in recent years. Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has vowed to prevent the execution of convicted killer Aaron Gunches, which was set for April 6.

But on February 23, Florida had its first execution in almost four years: Death Row inmate Donald Dilbeck, who was a repeat offender. After being given a life sentence for killing a sheriff’s deputy in 1979, Dilbeck escaped from prison and, in 1990, murdered a woman in a parking lot in Tallahassee. For that crime, Dilbeck was sentenced to death. He spent many years on Death Row before Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on January 23, signed a warrant for the execution.

At a time when much of the United States is moving away from the death penalty, Florida not only appears to be doubling down on it, but possibly, expanding it to include crimes other than premeditated murder.

According to Ashley Harding — a reporter for News 4 Jacksonville — lawmakers in the Florida State Legislature are considering making "sexual battery on children under 12 a crime punishable by death." Maria DeLiberato, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, adamantly opposes expanding Florida’s death penalty in that way.

DeLiberato told News 4 Jacksonville, "Child sexual battery is horrific and terrible and should be punished. Nobody is saying it shouldn't…. That’s going to be more cost to the Department of Corrections; they won't be able to house everybody in one, in one facility. Union Correctional does not have the space for that, which is where primarily all the Death Row inmates are, are housed."

Harding notes that DeSantis is supporting another bill that could increase the number of executions in Florida. Under that bill, a jury wouldn’t need a unanimous vote to recommend the death penalty — a vote of only eight of the jurors would be enough.

Expanding Florida’s death penalty to include child sexual abuse would, according to Harding, put the Florida State Legislature at odds with previous court rulings.

"In the past," Harding observes, "both the United States Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court ruled to ban death sentences for child rapists."

Read News 4 Jacksonville's full report at this link.

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