Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants convicted child rapists to be given the death penalty
Rachel Lang
Featured Image Credit: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo. Norma Jean Gargasz / Alamy Stock Photo.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has thrown his support behind two bills that could see pedophiles pay the ultimate price for their actions.
One of the bills DeSantis has backed would see the authorization of the death penalty for child rapists if passed.
It will also set a challenge to a US Supreme Court ruling from 2008.
The court declared that the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment stopped the convicted child rapists from being put to death.
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However, it looks like the state leader is going head-first into the idea.
DeSantis announced his support for the bill and its tough stance on child-sex crimes in a radio interview with WFLA.
"We are authorizing the death penalty for child rapists," he said. "My view is you have some of these people that will be serial rapists of six, seven-year-old kids.
"I think the death penalty is the only appropriate punishment when you have situations like that."
DeSantis told the Orlando radio station that the time to do away with such a ruling is now, especially considering most of the justices that made it are no longer on the bench.
"I think we're right at the law and I think that its current court would consider a challenge to that," DeSantis said.
The Florida Governor is also making moves to change another measure pertaining to the death penalty: bringing the current threshold down to allow for a death penalty recommendation.
As per the bill, a split jury of 8-4 would be able to recommend a death sentence for sexual battery on a child under age 12 instead of a unanimous one.
DeSantis is currently touring America to spruik his book The Courage to Be Free.
In Democratic states and key electorates for the 2024 election, DeSantis has spent time slamming prosecutors and officials that he deems 'soft' on crime.
These, curiously enough, seem to be cities with Democratic mayors.
As per the Daily Mail, DeSantis said in Michigan in early April: "Crime has gone up. People have fled these jurisdictions because of their recklessness."
In Georgia, he pointed out that his home state of Florida has nixed 'soft on crime policies'.
These policies include 'eliminating cash bail, or jailbreak legislation which lets violent criminals out of prison before they've completed their prison sentences'.
He added: "And we've also raised the alarm about the growing trend of left wing prosecutors getting elected."