Gov. DeSantis on the death penalty
Yesterday afternoon, at a press conference in Dade City, Gov. DeSantis spoke at length about the death penalty.
Yesterday afternoon, Gov. DeSantis held a press conference in Dade City. When asked about the victims of crimes that resulted in the death penalty, he said:
Part of the frustration of this, I support capital punishment because I think there are some crimes that are just so horrific, the only appropriate punishment is the death penalty. And I know there are some people who disagree, and that’s fine. But that’s my judgment. The problem, though, is that, you know, these folks go through and it takes forever to be able to do this. And I want to have a process. And the courts don’t always get it right. If someone is wrongfully convicted, you want there to be a backstop for sure. But man, the fact that it takes so long. . . . Most of the families that I’ve spoken to who have lost loved ones at the hands of really brutal killers, there’s just always that frustration with waiting. . . . You never get closure. This can’t bring their loved ones back, but . . . it can provide some closure that this whole legal enterprise has come to a conclusion. They don’t have to worry about something happening down the line.
When you see these things across your desk, these are brutal, brutal crimes. I’m not suggesting that some of the crimes that don’t merit the death penalty aren’t brutal too because there’s a lot of stuff, but this stuff is just overwhelmingly sadistic. It shocks your conscience. And that’s just not the way that a civilized society can function. So part of it is an appropriate punishment. Part of it is it expresses the outrage of the community. Because if you do something less than that, then potentially you’re sending a signal that “Yea, it’s bad but not as bad as it could’ve been.” No. These are the worst of the worst. And we’re very united in doing that. We have a lot of sympathy for the families who have gone through these ordeals. It’s not easy to lose a loved one. I mean some of these folks had brothers, sisters, children, nieces, nephews, I mean, . . . it’s really really bad stuff.
We’re working through these cases. We take everything very seriously. It’s an obligation I have as Governor to oversee it. There have been times when . . . people had questions. But any time we go forward, I’m convinced that not only was the verdict was correct but that this punishment is absolutely appropriate under the circumstances.
You can watch the press conference here:
The discussion on capital punishment begins at 35:50.
Let’s break this down.
Wrongful Convictions
Gov. DeSantis is right that there are wrongful convictions and wrongful death sentences. Since 1976, Florida has had 30 death row exonerations—the highest number in the country.1
Most recently, in September 2020, Robert DuBoise was exonerated after almost 40 years. You can read more about DuBoise’s case here.
In addition, William “Tommy” Zeigler, Florida’s longest-serving death row prisoners, is currently litigating newly discovered evidence relating to his long-standing innocence claims. You can read more here.
And recently, The Tributary published a series exposing serious questions about the veracity of Kenneth Hartley’s 1993 conviction. You can read more here.
Of course, others on Florida’s death row have also raised and are currently litigating innocence claims.
Lengthy Appeals
Gov. DeSantis is also right that the capital appeals process is lengthy. As of this morning, Florida has 272 prisoners on death row. You can view the full death row list here.
Their average age at the time of the crime was 29. Their average age today is 57. On average, it’s been 24.6 years since they were sentenced to death.
Deterrence
Gov. DeSantis suggested that the death penalty serves a deterrent purpose by “sending a signal” to society. However, studies show otherwise.
As Maria DeLiberato and I wrote in an op-ed in 2023 related to this narrative being used in support of the 2023 legislation:
The Death Penalty Information Center reported in 2017 that an “analysis of U.S. murder data from 1987 through 2015 . . . found no evidence that the death penalty deters murder or protects police.” Rather, “the evidence show[ed] that murder rates . . . are consistently higher in death-penalty states than in states that have abolished the death penalty.”
A 2021 article by the Sun Sentinel had similar findings to the DPIC’s study, reporting that “[a]nnual murder rates are consistently higher overall in the death penalty states than in the 22 without capital punishment.”
Victims’ Closure
As to the victims, Gov. DeSantis indicated that executions bring closure. The evidence on this is mixed. Last night’s victims agreed that the execution brought 30 years of “nightmares” to a close. However, other victims have spoken out against executions, saying that it reopens trauma. For example, this was true for the victims of Louis Gaskin, who was executed in 2023, as reported by the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
As opposed to a sentence of life without parole that is final shortly after sentencing, a death sentence years, sometimes even decades, of ongoing appeals and litigation that oftentimes does not end in an execution—subjecting the victims to ongoing litigation and traumatization.
Florida, Death Penalty Info. Ctr., https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state/florida.
Life in prison without the possibility of parole gives closure, brings the process to conclude more quickly and protects society while being reversable if a mistake is discovered. The Death Penalty does NOT deter - surety, severity, of punishment does. In fact, there is some evidence that state sanctioned killing sometimes justifies murder in the criminal mind. I come from a state that abolished the death penalty even before it joined the Union and it has been clear that there is no need to reinstate it. Efforts to amend our state constitution to allow it were met with public opposition lead by families of murder victims that did not want to go through the renewed trauma that endless appeals. We abolished the death penalty after a victim of a public hanging in Canada was exonerated by a death bed confession by the real murderer.
Totally agree with Nick, Life without parole brings closure. The families of the victims get dragged along for years in the appeals process that a death row inmate is entitled to.