Senate to Reconvene on SB 450 Today
Overview of the Senate's reading of SB 450 on capital sentencing yesterday and update on what to expect today.
Senate Declines to Adopt 10-2 Amendment
The Senate discussed SB 450—the Senate’s capital sentencing bill—and Senator Powell’s late-filed amendment yesterday.1 Senator Powell said his amendment presents a “compromise” between 12-0 and 8-4. Senator Pizzo commented that he is a firm “yes” on the amendment but thinks the 8-4 bill may bring trouble. Senator Ingoglia, the sponsor of SB 450, asked everyone to vote no on the amendment. Most of the discussion focused on this idea of “activist jurors.”
The amendment was not adopted.
PS. Did anyone catch Senator Powell saying “PLOT TWIST”? I swear I said it first.
Senate to Reconvene Today
As to SB 450, the “activist juror” discussion continued. Senators Ingoglia and Pizzo went through a fairly extensive back-and-forth about the capital sentencing process and the idea of “activist jurors.”2 Senator Pizzo argued that “activist jurors” don’t only exist at the very end of the process and, in theory, have the opportunity to affect the outcome at any part of the process, including guilt. Senator Ingoglia went back to the Parkland trial, where guilt was not in question. He also stated, in response to another question, that he believes Nikolas Cruz would have been sentenced to death if this law had been on the books at the time of the trial.
The bill was placed on the calendar for third reading for today at 1:30 p.m. with debate, after which the Senate is expected to vote on SB 450. The video can be found here.
Senator Ingoglia continues to say “aggregating factor” instead of “aggravating factor.”