XPost: alt.society.liberalism, fl.politics, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: get.joey@delaware.usa   
      
   TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would allow   
   the death penalty for people who commit sexual batteries on children under   
   age 12, sending the issue to Gov. Ron DeSantis.   
      
   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. The state House passed the bill last week.   
      
   Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, a Davie Democrat who was sexually   
   abused as a child, implored senators Tuesday evening to vote for the bill.   
   She said people who sexually abuse children are "called predators for a   
   reason, because they stalk and hunt down their prey."   
      
   "There is no statute of limitations on this crime (for victims)," Book   
   said. "There is no end. It's always with you."   
      
   The Senate voted 34-5 to pass the bill, with the dissenting votes cast by   
   Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton; Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami; Sen. Erin   
   Grall, R-Vero Beach; Sen. Rosalind Osgood, D-Fort Lauderdale; and Sen.   
   Geraldine Thompson, D-Windermere. The House voted 95-14 to approve the   
   bill, which DeSantis is expected to sign.   
      
   Sponsors of the bill have been upfront about hoping the bill will be a   
   vehicle to get the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court to   
   reconsider legal precedents that have blocked executing rapists. In a   
   somewhat-unusual move, the bill specifically says the Legislature finds   
   that a 1981 Florida Supreme Court decision and the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court   
   decision, in a case known as Kennedy v. Louisiana, were "wrongly decided."   
      
   Senate bill sponsor Jonathan Martin, a Fort Myers Republican who is a   
   former prosecutor, pointed to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S.   
   Supreme Court becoming more conservative after appointments in recent   
   years.   
      
   "We have a completely different (U.S.) Supreme Court makeup," Martin told   
   senators. "We have a completely different Florida Supreme Court makeup   
   than when Kennedy v. Louisiana was issued. I know everybody in this room   
   hopes that nobody is put to death for this crime. Because if someone is   
   put to death for this crime, it means that a poor innocent child was   
   raped."   
      
   Under the bill, defendants could receive death sentences based on the   
   recommendations of at least eight of 12 jurors. Judges would have   
   discretion to impose the death penalty or sentence defendants to life in   
   prison. If fewer than eight jurors recommend death, defendants would   
   receive life sentences.   
      
   Currently, unanimous jury recommendations are required before judges can   
   impose the death penalty in murder cases. But lawmakers also have passed a   
   bill that would allow death sentences in murder cases after   
   recommendations from eight of 12 jurors. DeSantis also is expected to sign   
   that bill.   
      
   The death-penalty bills would affect what is known as the "sentencing   
   phase" of cases. Juries would still need to unanimously find defendants   
   guilty of the crimes before the sentencing phase would begin.   
      
   Osgood, who cast one of the dissenting votes Tuesday, described the child-   
   rape bill as a "quandary" for her.   
      
   "I love kids, and I'll do anything to protect them," Osgood said. "But I   
   struggle from a faith perspective. If I believe in my faith that God can   
   redeem and save anybody, then how do I support someone getting the death   
   penalty? And I'm just talking about me. That's my struggle. That's my   
   challenge."   
      
   But Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Hollywood Democrat who is a former prosecutor,   
   said people who sexually abuse children can't be rehabilitated.   
      
   "There is nothing more heinous than touching and abusing a child," Pizzo   
   said.   
      
   https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/death-penalty-for-child-rapists-   
   approved-desantis-expected-to-sign-into-law/   
      
   Good.  Now they can execute Biden for molesting children.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)