Death Penalty

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the the bill Monday along with two other components of his criminal justice legislative package.

Lawmakers hope the bill (HB 1297) will ultimately lead to the U.S. Supreme Court reversing a 2008 decision that barred the death penalty for people who rape children.

Legislators approved a bill that will allow death penalty sentences with the recommendation of at least eight jurors in favor. It now heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis' desk.

Louis Gaskin became the 101st person executed in Florida since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. He had been sentenced to death for the murder of a north Florida couple in 1989.

Louis Bernard Gaskin, 56, is scheduled to be put to death for the 1989 deaths of a couple in Flagler County.

Florida lawmakers appear ready to pass a proposal that would allow the death penalty for people who commit sexual batteries on children under age 12.

Florida lawmakers this week reached the halfway point in this year’s 60-day legislative session. The House and Senate have passed high-profile bills involving issues such as affordable housing and school vouchers, but major issues remain to be resolved.

The Florida Senate is passing a bill to repeal a law requiring a unanimous jury recommendation for the death penalty.

The attorneys convicted murderer Louis Gaskin are asking the Florida Supreme court to halt his execution, arguing in part that a jury was not given evidence of Gaskin’s mental illness before recommending that he be sentenced to death in the 1989 murders of a Flagler County couple.

The Senate Bill'd (SB 450) sponsor says it's an effort to avoid one “protest juror” from preventing a death sentence.

As the state carries out the death penalty again after a more than three-year pause, a Florida House panel Wednesday supported lowering a threshold for sentencing defendants to death.

The Florida Senate voted 6-2 to approve a state bill that would allow judges to sentence defendants to death based on the recommendations of only eight of the 12 jurors — --instead of requiring a unanimous vote.