Scott Signs Fast-Track Execution Bill, Making 13 Death Row Inmates...
In signing the so-called "Timely Justice Act," Scott went against the tide of calls, letters and emails urging him to veto it. As of Thursday, his office had received 447 phone calls, with 438 opposed...
View ArticleEmergency Lawsuit Charges Law Fast-Tracking Death Row Inmates Is...
The suit alleges that the law, which goes in effect July 1, would violate the separation of powers by imposing obligations on lawyers that conflict with judicially-determined rules, and that it would...
View ArticleEric Holder Takes on the “War on Drugs,” Mandatory Sentences and Epidemic...
Attorney general Eric Holder on Monday delivered a seminal speech outlining a plan to revamp federal drug policy and incarceration rates of non-violent and elderly offenders, and urging Congress to...
View ArticleFlorida Supreme Court Stays Execution, Raising Questions About Cruelty of...
A 5-2 Florida Supreme Court vote put the execution of convicted murderer Askari Abdullah Muhammad on hold Monday to consider claims that the three-drug cocktail used to put inmates to death could cause...
View ArticleDeath Penalty’s Latest Mutation: Experimenting on Human Beings
The decision to seek the death penalty simply can’t be justified either by society’s or individuals’ desire for revenge, argues Steve Robinson. Were that the case, we could issue baseball bats to...
View ArticleWith 132 Death Row Inmates Readied for Execution, Lawyers Contest Fast-Track...
More than 150 lawyers and Death Row inmates are challenging the so-called Timely Justice Act, signed by Gov. Rick Scott in June, intended to speed up executions. Lawyers argue it violates the...
View ArticleConvicted in Trooper’s Murder, Paul Howell Is Executed, Gov. Scott’s 15th
Howell was convicted in 1994 in the 1992 murder of Florida Highway Patrol trooper Jimmy Fulford in 1992 when a bomb Howell manufactured exploded in the trooper's hands after a traffic stop. The post...
View ArticleLife Without Parole for Juveniles: Florida Struggles to Comply With Supreme...
Florida sentences more juveniles to life in prison without parole than any other state, but the pressure is on the Legislature this year to comply with restrictive U.S. Supreme Court rulings because...
View ArticleGov. Scott Sticking By Lethal Injection Formula Despite Gruesome Execution in...
A new report issued by the Constitution Project on Wednesday recommends that states like Florida scrap the three-drug lethal injection cocktail that resulted in a botched execution in Oklahoma last...
View ArticleU.S. Supreme Court Declares Florida’s Death Penalty Too Rigid in Low I.Q. Cases
The court, in a 5-4 decision, said Florida's use of an IQ score of 70 "creates an unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disability will be executed, and thus is unconstitutional."...
View ArticleJohn Ruthell Henry Is Executed, 18th Inmate Put to Death on Rick Scott’s Watch
No other first-term governor has signed the execution warrants of so many inmates since Florida re-instituted the death penalty in 1976. Since then, the state has executed 87 inmates. One in five of...
View ArticleGruesome Buddies: ISIS Beheadings And the American Death Penalty
ISIS beheadings have provoked instinctive revulsion, justly so. Too bad the same reaction doesn't follow Florida's and other American state's equally barbaric continuation of the death penalty, a habit...
View ArticleCruel and Unusual: 2 Inmates Who Murdered as Juveniles Challenge Their Life...
Two inmates serving life in prison for murders committed as juveniles are challenging their sentences based on a 2012 US Supreme Court ruling that bans mandatory life sentences for juveniles. The post...
View ArticleDon’t Expect Supreme Court’s Latest Review of Lethal Injection to Kill Death...
States changed from hanging to electric chair because it was a modern, supposedly painless method of execution. Botched executions have rendered that assumption problematic. The post Don’t Expect...
View ArticleYes, It’s Retroactive: Florida Supreme Court Rules All Lifers Sentenced as...
The justices ordered lower Florida courts to apply a 2014 law to inmates who, as juveniles, were sentenced in the past either to life in prison or to terms that would have effectively kept them behind...
View ArticleSupreme Court’s Lethal Injection Ruling Clears Way For More Florida...
In the 5-4 majority opinion issued Monday, Justice Alito wrote that the first of the three-drug lethal cocktail used also used in Florida, "entails a substantial risk of severe pain." The post Supreme...
View ArticleU.S. Supreme Court Declares Florida’s Death Penalty Scheme Unconstitutional
The United States Supreme Court, in an emphatic ruling Tuesday, declared Florida's death penalty sentencing scheme to be a violation of the Sixth Amendment. The post U.S. Supreme Court Declares...
View ArticleFlorida Lawmakers Urged to Require Unanimous Verdicts in Death Penalty Cases
Florida is the only state in the nation where a simple jury majority is enough for a death penalty recommendation, one of several problems at odds with a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Florida's...
View ArticleFlorida Supreme Court Halts Executions Indefinitely; 389 Death Row Inmates In...
The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Florida's death-penalty sentencing scheme on Jan. 12, forcing the state to rewrite its law but also putting in question whether the new law must apply to all 489...
View ArticleToo Many Questions Beg The Answer: End the Death Penalty in Florida
Rick Scott shouldn’t plan on signing any more death warrants soon, if ever, argues Martin Dyckman, even as the Florida House "cured" what the U.S. Supreme Court specifically found wrong with Florida’s...
View ArticlePoll-Tax Redux: Millions Free From Jail Are Barred From Voting By Criminal Debt
Debt from fines starts at sentencing and can grow at interest rates of 12 percent or more while inmates serve their sentences. It continues to grow after they’re released and face the numerous barriers...
View ArticleIn Florida, Court Rules, a 55-Year Prison Sentence For a Juvenile Is Not a...
Anthony Julian Collins was two months shy of 17 when he was committed an attempted second-degree murder, carjacking with a firearm and attempted armed robbery. The post In Florida, Court Rules, a...
View ArticleSouth Florida Judge Declares State’s New Death Penalty Law Unconstitutional
While the decision is not necessarily controlling in Flagler County and the rest of Florida, it again muddies the fate of a law barely eight weeks old, and further sheds a harsh light on Florida's...
View ArticleSharply Split Court Revamps and Complicates Challenges to Solitary and...
Giving more "deference" to the Florida Department of Corrections, a sharply divided appeals court Tuesday approved revamping the legal process for inmates who challenge disciplinary decisions that take...
View ArticleFlorida Supreme Court in Seminal Decision Rules Death Penalty Verdicts Must...
The court's 5-2 decision, which will immediately affect 40 inmates and many of the 385 others on death row, ends Florida's status as an outlier state where non-unanimous death penalty recommendations...
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