Florida passes bill allowing death penalty for child sexual abusers

[Eric]

With the path they're taking against trans youth this can get really messy, someone needs to stop this fascist pig.

Florida passes bill allowing death penalty for child sexual abusers

Florida lawmakers have passed legislation backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that would permit the death penalty for those convicted of sexually abusing children.

nypost.com

The bipartisan proposal — which passed by a vote of 34-5 late Tuesday — will also allow juries to hand down death sentences by votes of at least 8-4, after previously requiring unanimity.

The bill — which passed the Florida House of Representatives 95-14 last week and which DeSantis is expected to sign — would apply to those convicted of abusing a child under the age of 12.

“My view is, you have some of these people that will be serial rapists of six, seven-year-old kids,” DeSantis told “Good Morning Orlando” Monday. “I think the death penalty is the only appropriate punishment when you have situations like that.”

 

[fooferdoggie]

could this even stand? I doubt it. but it's Florida so they have to try Wonder how many of the GOP will be executed? maybe it would take out their majority

 

[Herdfan]

Don't you think it is a stretch between punishing actual child molesters and this being applied to trans kids?

Part of me is opposed to this solely because there is honor among thieves and child molesters don't fair well in prison. So just keep them there.

 

[fooferdoggie]

Don't you think it is a stretch between punishing actual child molesters and this being applied to trans kids?

Part of me is opposed to this solely because there is honor among thieves and child molesters don't fair well in prison. So just keep them there.

this is Florida people who help trans kids are groomers. I am fully into life sentences. but I doubt they can kill someone for it. but where has the constitution stopped deathsantis?

 

[Eric]

Don't you think it is a stretch between punishing actual child molesters and this being applied to trans kids?

Part of me is opposed to this solely because there is honor among thieves and child molesters don't fair well in prison. So just keep them there.

Exact same thing was said about the "don't say gay" bill with their "protect the children" line... now you can't say it as teenagers either.

If there were objective legislation around this by bipartisan lawmakers I think it should be considered, but the fact that it's partisan coming from a man who has a hellbent hatred for all things LGBTQ is scary. Right now DeSantis is going way off the deep end.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

While we’re at it, since capitalism is such a sacred cow in this country we should have the death penalty for the cyclical genocide of people’s retirement. Suddenly Wall St will be back to being boring like it was for most of its history.

 

[Nycturne]

Exact same thing was said about the "don't say gay" bill with their "protect the children" line... now you can't say it as teenagers either.

If there were objective legislation around this by bipartisan lawmakers I think it should be considered, but the fact that it's partisan coming from a man who has a hellbent hatred for all things LGBTQ is scary. Right now DeSantis is going way off the deep end.

So here’s my spicy take on this:

It is scary. We’ve got two major changes around the death penalty in around a week here:

- No longer requiring unanimous vote of jury to deliver a death sentence.
- Installing the death sentence for sexual battery.

The second is setting up another Supreme Court battle as it wasn’t that long ago that the court ruled that the death sentence for anything other than crimes that involved murder was unconstitutional. So it’s teeing up an attempt to overturn another legal precedent.

Do I think this will be used against trans people? Not as currently written. Sexual battery has a clear definition of what counts.

That said, these changes have big problems:

1) the death penalty is now easier to give out in Florida than in any other place in the US.
2) Florida wants to create the precedent that a crime less than murder is worthy of death.
3) The law is specifically cast as protecting “our” children from inhuman monsters.
4) It creates perverse incentives for a perpetrator to eliminate the victim (punishment is no worse), and for the victim to not report the crime as most victims know their abuser well. Ironically, the abuser can hang the punishment over the head of the victim. How many people want to be known as the one who sent a relative to death row?

As someone against capital punishment for multiple reasons, this bothers me. The fact that this could be turned into a tool to further stamp down on the queer community as the panic takes further root and dehumanization continues is certainly a part of it. The Jews were also painted as threats to children to justify escalating laws.

Right now we aren’t there, but the foundation has been laid to get there, and to enable a state to inflict capital punishment over a minority veto in the jury.

 

[Alli]

Right now we aren’t there, but the foundation has been laid to get there, and to enable a state to inflict capital punishment over a minority veto in the jury.

To wit, non-GQP lawmakers.

This also lays the groundwork for punishing, no, for murdering parents who provide gender affirming care or who accept their children as anything but heterosexual. Because, what kind of monster would raise a child to be anything other?!

I weep for our country.

 

[Nycturne]

To wit, non-GQP lawmakers.

This also lays the groundwork for punishing, no, for murdering parents who provide gender affirming care or who accept their children as anything but heterosexual. Because, what kind of monster would raise a child to be anything other?!

I weep for our country.

I mean, this is a terrible situation even if we aren’t talking about the future.

Florida clearly is trying to tee this up as a way to see if they can get Kennedy v. Louisiana overturned, with Coker v. Georgia being a bonus if they can get that too. If allowed to stand, this will not lower the rate of sexual abuse in the state, just the reporting rate, which is already isn’t great so it will effectively make things worse for children. But that legal precedent that prevents the widening of the category of capital crimes is important as well. It helps blunt the excesses of our criminal justice system, especially when changes are being made to lower the bar for capital punishment to occur and we have an annoying ability as a nation to put innocent people on death row on poor evidence as it is.

So if not invalidated by the inevitable court challenge, you’ll have a US where states can make more things capital crimes. And yes, when sexual crimes are made capital crimes, it makes sense that a group who is the target of rhetoric designed to paint the group as sexual predators is in danger of being next. But this is a sh** sandwich all the way down.

 

[fooferdoggie]

The GOP are really counting on the corrupt Supreme court will give them everything they have ever wanted.