DeSantis spearheads death penalty reforms, setting up possible Supreme Court battle

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is spearheading efforts to make it easier to execute criminals in his state of Florida, setting up a possible Supreme Court challenge as he leans into the message that he is tough on crime.

After DeSantis announced what he called "Law and Order Legislation" in January, the state's GOP-controlled Legislature agreed last week to repeal a law requiring a unanimous jury verdict to impose the death penalty, Reuters reported.

DeSantis is expected to sign the bill into law, which will allow juries to recommend capital punishment in an 8-4 vote. The legislation was introduced after the Parkland school shooter was sentenced to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder.

State lawmakers are set to consider allowing the death penalty to be imposed on convicted child rapists. However, in 2008, the Supreme Court, which was controlled by liberal justices at the time, ruled 5-4 that applying the death penalty in child rape cases violated the Eight Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

DeSantis' original proposal was to require life prison sentences for convicted child rapists while exploring possible options to exercise the death penalty.

Florida required death penalty recommendations to be made unanimously in a 2017 law that was passed after a Supreme Court ruling struck down a different state law regarding jury sentencing in capital punishment cases.

If the non-unanimous proposal becomes a law, Florida would join Alabama as the only states that do not require a unanimous jury decision before recommending the death penalty, according to Politico.

DeSantis has criticized what he calls "soft-on-crime" policies amid rumors that he plans on running for the Republican presidential nomination. 

"We are holding people accountable," DeSantis said Thursday at a Republican Lincoln Day breakfast in Akron, Ohio. "We reject soft-on-crime policies like eliminating cash bail or jailbreak legislation that lets dangerous criminals out of jail before they have finished their sentence. We see the plague across the country of left-wing district attorneys getting elected."