• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Florida passes bill to give convicted child sex offenders the death penalty

Home> News

Updated 04:46 20 Apr 2023 GMT+1Published 04:45 20 Apr 2023 GMT+1

Florida passes bill to give convicted child sex offenders the death penalty

The bill will also see a jury able to recommend criminals pay the ultimate price without a unanimous vote.

Rachel Lang

Rachel Lang

Lawmakers in Florida have passed a bill that will see people convicted of pedophilia and child sex offences given the death penalty.

The bill was given the green light after Florida Senator Ron DeSantis backed the proposed legislation in order to clamp down on sex crimes against children under the age of 12.

The bipartisan proposal was passed forward to be enshrined in law with a vote of 34-5 late Tuesday.

State Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book and Republican State Senator Jonathan Martin co-sponsored the bipartisan bill, arguing that those who sexually violate children are likely to repeat their crime and therefore deserve to pay the ultimate price.

Advert

"Once a predator has a child ensnared, they will harm that child over and over and over again," Book said, as per The New York Post.

Ron DeSantis.
Tribune Content Agency LLC / Alamy.

"And then move on to another innocent child."

She added: "Pedophile behavior has been deemed highly repetitive to the point of compulsion."

Advert

DeSantis threw his support behind the bill in a radio interview with WFLA on Monday (April 17).

"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."

Advert

The bill will also hand juries the power to hand down death sentences with a vote of at least 8-4 in favor of the ultimate penalty.

Previously, the death sentence required an unanimous vote to see pedophiles put to death as penance for their crimes.

The bill flies in the face of a 2008 decision by the US Supreme Court.

Concept of child abuse.
Mark Wiener / Alamy.

The 15-year-old precedent stems from the ruling of Kennedy v. Louisiana, in which Supreme Court justices ruled that the death penalty could not be administered against child rapists or anyone else who had committed a crime in which the victim did not die.

Advert

DeSantis suggested earlier in the week that the current Supreme Court bench, made up of six Republican and three Democrat justices, may be open to overturning the decision.

The Florida Governor told WFLA that the time to do away with such a ruling is now, especially considering most of the justices that made the ruling 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.

Featured Image Credit: AC NewsPhoto / Alamy Stock Photo. Historic Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

Topics: US News, Crime, Politics

Rachel Lang
Rachel Lang

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

an hour ago
13 hours ago
14 hours ago
15 hours ago
  • an hour ago

    Trump issues $50,000,000 bounty on world leader for allegedly aiding terrorists bring 'deadly violence' to US

    The POTUS is offering a hefty reward

    News
  • 13 hours ago

    Kelly Clarkson’s ex-husband Brandon Blackstock has died aged 48

    The singer has taken to Instagram to inform her fans that she would be postponing her tour

    Celebrity
  • 14 hours ago

    Disturbing reason why thousands of Audis were sitting abandoned in a desert after $36,000,000,000 scandal

    A scandal saw thousands of motors lay dormant in the desert due to horrific ethics displayed by one huge car manufacturer

    News
  • 15 hours ago

    Trump makes ‘sickening’ new announcement and people are convinced it has a more sinister intention

    Donald Trump has made a new announcement which will see some big changes around migrants in the US 'illegally'

    News
  • US woman handed 8-year prison sentence for stealing identities to 'give North Koreans jobs'
  • US House passes new bill that will officially change elections after Trump executive order
  • Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants convicted child rapists to be given the death penalty
  • Death row inmate executed by lethal injection despite concerns over suffering