Effort To Abolish Florida’s Death Penalty Fails On Committee Vote

February 11, 2013

An effort to abolish the death penalty in Florida finally got a hearing last week in a House committee after a three-year effort, but then quickly went down to defeat.

The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee voted 9-4 against a bill (HB 4005) that would have statutorily abolished the death penalty in the state.

But the rare vote to kill a bill in committee, rather than just bottling it up never to be heard, gave death penalty opponents their first chance to extensively argue for a repeal, following several years in which the measure’s sponsor, Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, has been unable to persuade Republican leaders to put the bill before a committee.

Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, offered extensive praise for committee chairman Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, for being willing to allow the debate on the often divisive and emotional issue. Gaetz also had the committee take testimony from a number of death penalty opponents, including a rabbi, a university criminology professor and a woman whose daughter and grandson were murdered but who has advocated against the death penalty.

The debate and vote on the bill preceded another discussion on potential flaws in application of the death penalty, the beginning of a discussion that may result in legislation later this year.

But Gaetz said that before debating whether to make the death penalty law better, it only made sense to take up the “threshold question … of whether Florida should even have the death penalty.”

Rehwinkel Vasilinda said she was passionate about the notion that it should not, citing the too high chance of executing someone who is innocent – considering that 24 death row inmates have been exonerated. She also cited her own personal beliefs that arise out of her Catholic faith. She also said the United States is increasingly out of step with other modern democracies, most of which have banned capital punishment.

Most of those who spoke in favor of abolishing the death penalty said it was because it was unfairly applied, and the state’s track record on wrongful convictions doesn’t seem to be very good.

Rep. Kionne McGhee, a former prosecutor who also experienced the justice system from the perspective of someone whose father and brother were murdered, said regardless of whether it’s right, the system doesn’t work.

“One innocent life taken on death row is enough to question the system,” said McGhee, D-Miami.

Rehwinkel and others also told the committee that there’s a growing sense that even if it were the right thing to do philosophically, that the expense of carrying out the death penalty is depriving communities of money that could go for other criminal justice needs.

Gaetz said he, too, was passionate about the issue, but on the other side, and believes above all else, that it serves as a deterrent in particular situations, if not more broadly.

“I like knowing today that in Florida everybody knows that if you kill a cop you will be executed,” Gaetz said. “I want everybody in prison to know that if a corrections officer is killed by your hand, you will die.”

The committee also heard a plea in favor of keeping the death penalty from another perspective. State Attorney Brad King, a central Florida prosecutor, laid out gruesome details of some of the state’s most notorious murders of children, arguing that some crimes are simply so atrocious that death for the murderer is the only option that makes any sense.

He reminded the panel about the case of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, for example, and how after being abducted and raped, she was buried alive, and investigators noted the marks on her finger nails from trying to claw her way out of a plastic bag.

Murderers chose to end those lives without due process, he said.

“By their choice, by their decision, they should be judged,” King said.

And King asked the panel what he should say to the families of the children he mentioned, who may wonder why their loved ones died but a brutal killer might be allowed to live.

“It is right to say their life is not more valuable than the little lives that they took,” King said.

Gaetz said the committee will continue to listen to death penalty opponents as it takes a broader look at fairness issues with the application of capital punishment.

By The News Service of Florida

Comments

8 Responses to “Effort To Abolish Florida’s Death Penalty Fails On Committee Vote”

  1. Right on February 12th, 2013 11:53 am

    “I thought Republicans were pro life? I guess that doesn’t apply to everyone…”

    You guessed right…republicans are pro life for the innocent!

  2. Bob Hudsun on February 12th, 2013 10:26 am

    Well what do you do with a rabid dog? You put them down. I find it odd, some folks are very pro-abortion, then these same people get very upset about executing and convicted killer. Never will understand that.

  3. David Huie Green on February 12th, 2013 5:48 am

    REGARDING:
    “I thought Republicans were pro life? I guess that doesn’t apply to everyone…”

    Republicans vary just as we Democrats do.
    Some are Republican because they agree with fiscal ideas, some for foreign affairs attitudes, some for social issues. Some even join the Republican Party so they can vote in the primaries.

    Even the ones who are pro life tend to be in favor of the lives of non killers rather than the lives of killers, partly under the concept of the unfairness of treating killers better than their victims, partly under the concept that known killers are more likely to kill again than non killers, partly in hopes that the death of people involved in non-sanctioned killing might convince those considering killing to not do so.

    David for truth

  4. huh on February 12th, 2013 12:12 am

    I thought Republicans were pro life? I guess that doesn’t apply to everyone…

  5. David Huie Green on February 11th, 2013 3:08 pm

    A horse thief WAS a murderer back then because a man stranded afoot was very likely to die a long, lonely, suffering death.

    The lady figured killing killers is inappropriate because of the danger of killing a non killer. Four agreed with the thought. Nine disagreed. Question answered for now, can be revisited later if it seems reasonable to do so.

    The lady did not consider that in some cases the exonerations were not actually proof of innocence but rather some doubt and instances where original evidence had been lost or destroyed (consider recent flood damage to court houses and sheriffs’ and police evidence storage rooms). When this happens, a retrial is useless even when the person is guilty.

    She did not consider the improved forensics she cites reduces the danger of a wrongful conviction in the future.

    She did not consider the fact that letting killers live greatly increases the likelihood they will kill many innocent people.

    She did not consider the idea of freezing convicted killers until such time — if ever — that they can be revived as non killers (or the equipment fails or is turned off).

  6. patti on February 11th, 2013 1:30 pm

    I’m against this bill!! I BELIEVE in the BIBICAL WAY, an eye for an eye, etc. I think if our country was like some of the other countries in dealing with thief, murder, etc. We’d have lots LESS folks in prison. You know, if yoiu steal, cut off one arm, if you kill then you’d be killed. Seems like all most folks get are a slap on the wrist, enprisonment (where one just sits, watches TV, eats, sleeps, (excercise if one wants to), do the same each and every day. If one gets sick, they get to see the doctor, if they need hospitalization, that’s okay too! Is THAT punishment? I don’t think so. THESE are my thoughts!!

  7. EJ on February 11th, 2013 9:54 am

    They used to hang horse theives..now you can’t even put to death a murderer.

  8. well on February 11th, 2013 4:56 am

    Be fair about it.
    Apply it to all after no more than a 5 year period.