Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, is expected to sign a bill allowing the death penalty with an 8-4 jury vote rather than requiring a unanimous vote, Politico reported Monday.
"What happened with the Parkland case ... You had one juror that held out," DeSantis said Monday morning in an interview with Simon Conway on WFLA's "Good Morning Orlando."
DeSantis was responding to the host's question about a bill heading to his desk that would change the number of jurors required to recommend a death penalty. The current requirement is for a unanimous vote. Once DeSantis signs SB 280, the requirement will be a 2/3 vote, or 8 to 4 on a 12-person jury.
The bill would reverse a 2017 law requiring jurors' unanimity in capital cases.
"I think we're doing it fair. What we're doing is what Florida law used to be. Our old, liberal Supreme Court struck that down. Our current Supreme Court, which is conservative, overruled that precedent. So all we're doing is basically returning to what Florida had done historically," DeSantis said.
The Sunshine State governor went on to explain his objection to a single juror having the power to nullify a death sentence decision. He focused specifically, as he has in the past, on the case of the Parkland shooter.
DeSantis took office the year after the 2018 Parkland massacre took the lives of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Instead of describing the effect of the bill as "lowering the threshold" for the imposition of capital punishment, he described it as "protection against ... nullification."
He went on to explain that though prosecutors are entitled to get a "death-qualified jury," meaning that each juror says he or she is willing to vote to administer capital punishment under the right circumstances, there is always a chance that a juror will slip through who has no intention of doing so under any circumstance.
"You have people that, you know, bring an agenda to bear, and they're willing to get on that jury and do that," he said.
"If you don't support capital punishment, I respect that. But the way to deal with that is to try to get the laws changed in the state through the democratic process. It's not to be on a jury and to nullify capital punishment."
"In Parkland, [capital punishment] was the only appropriate punishment. Now, [the Parkland shooter] is going to be in prison the rest of his life. It's going to cost the taxpayers a fortune, for 60, 70 years, potentially. And that's not really justice for the families."
In addition to his comments on the bill changing the threshold for capital punishment, DeSantis also signaled his support for a separate measure that would authorize the death penalty for people convicted of raping children.
"We are authorizing the death penalty for child rapists, which is cutting against recent Supreme Court precedent, but I think we're right on the law and I think the current court would consider a challenge to that," Gov. DeSantis 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."
Gun control activist Po Murray has accused Ryan Petty — a man whose daughter Alaina was among the 17 people killed after a shooter opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 — of supporting the massacre of children.
Murray, chair of the Newtown Action Alliance, issued a tweet last week in which she claimed that people who do not back an assault weapons ban support kids being killed by a school shooter. "If you don't support the assault weapons ban then you support one of the worst crimes in America --- children being massacred by a shooter with an AR15 in an elementary school," she tweeted.
Petty noted that he is not in favor of such a ban, and asked Murray whether she thought that he supported the massacre of kids.
Murray answered with an emphatic, "YES!"
\u201cYES!\u201d— Po Murray (@Po Murray) 1665929821
"You are a hack and a grifter. Your moronic gun free zones are why my daughter is dead. You shall not infringe on our right to protect ourselves & our loved ones. Go crawl back under a rock," Petty tweeted.
Murray, who has claimed that President Joe Biden's "approval rating should be much higher," noted last week that she voted in Florida's 2022 gubernatorial election contest for Democratic candidate Charlie Crist.
She has accused "MAGA Republicans" of not caring whether children are killed by school shooters bearing AR-15s. "MAGA Republicans don’t care if your kids are hunted & massacred by criminals with AR15s in schools," Murray tweeted.
She has also claimed that GOP figures who oppose gun control bear responsibility for violent crime in the U.S. and that "MAGA Republicans" are supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of the nation of Ukraine.
"Republicans who block gun control measures are responsible for violent crime in our nation," a tweet declares. "Don't be bamboozled. Gas prices are up due to the pandemic & the Russian invasion of Ukraine. MAGA Republicans politicized & prolonged the pandemic & they support Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s their fault," another tweet reads.
The man who perpetrated the Parkland shooting will get life in prison without the potential for parole, though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is currently seeking reelection, said last week that he thought the shooter deserved the death penalty. "I think that, ah, if you have a death penalty at all, ah, that that is a case, where you're massacring those students with premeditation, ah, in utter disregard for basic humanity, that you deserve the death penalty," DeSantis said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis Reacts to Jury Decision in Parkland Shooter's Death Penalty Trial youtu.be
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, expressed disappointment on Thursday that the man who killed 17 people at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 will not face the death penalty.
The jury only recommended life in prison without the potential for parole.
"I think that, ah, if you have a death penalty at all, ah, that that is a case, where you're massacring those students with premeditation, ah, in utter disregard for basic humanity, that you deserve the death penalty," DeSantis said.
The governor also noted that he is disappointed with the very slow pace of the process.
"He's guilty. Everybody knew that from the beginning. And yet it takes years and years in this legal system, that is not serving the interests of victims," said Desantis, who is up for reelection next month.
Jury foreman Benjamin Thomas explained that one particular juror was steadfast in her belief that the shooter was mentally ill, and for that reason should not be executed. Thomas said that another two members of the jury also ultimately voted that way as well. He noted that the result was not what he wanted.
Parkland trial jury foreman Benjamin Thomas said it didn't go the way he would have wanted www.youtube.com
The jury would have had to unanimously back the death penalty for the Parkland shooter to get a death sentence, according to reports.
The Parkland shooter pled guilty last year to killing 17 people and wounding 17 others, according to the Associated Press.
"I'm disgusted with our legal system. I'm disgusted with those jurors," said Dr. Ilan Alhadeff, whose daughter Alyssa was one of the murder victims. "What do we have the death penalty for?"
A man who police say has a "disturbing fascination" with mass school shootings, both real and fictional, has been arrested for allegedly leaving dead animals at a memorial dedicated to those who died in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
On August 4, Robert Mondragon, 29, was arrested after various dead animals were discovered at a memorial for the 17 people murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. On July 20 of this year, a school crossing guard noticed the carcass of a dead duck, its chest cavity cut open, on a memorial bench. The next day, the crossing guard found a dead raccoon, and a deputy found a dead opossum on July 31.
Police said that surveillance video shows a white Nissan with either black rims or no rims pulling up to the memorial garden, located just outside the school property, on July 30 at around 11 p.m. local time.
A deputy spotted a similar-looking vehicle the next day and pulled the driver — Mondragon — over for illegally tinted windows. When the deputy looked into the vehicle, he could see "bird feathers and blood on the front passenger side floorboard," the Broward County Sheriff's Office reported.
When asked about the blood, Mondragon allegedly told the officer that "he had the dead bird in his car because he likes ‘the metal and blood smell that emit from the dead animal,'" the police report states.
Mondragon was arrested a few days later and charged with three counts of disfiguring a tomb or monument, five counts of violating probation for battery and indecent exposure, and one count of violating a risk protection order. He is currently being held without bond in North Broward Bureau detention facility.
Police said that Mondragon has a "disturbing fascination" with school shootings, including fictional depictions of them. The tattoos on his face allegedly resemble those of the fictional character Tate Langdon from the TV show "American Horror Story." According to WPEC West Palm Beach, Langdon's character is based on the Columbine shooting in 1999.
On his phone, police also reportedly found pictures of Mondragon posing with dead animals, as well as internet searches about school shootings. Police say that at some point earlier this year, Mondragon even retraced the steps that the Parkland shooter took on the day of the shooting four years ago.
Mondragon's arrest and alleged actions coincide with the shooter's trial. Though the shooter has already pled guilty, a jury must still determine whether he will serve life in prison or receive the death penalty.
Mondragon is also allegedly under investigation by the ATF for unrelated issues.
Four members of the Broward County School Board in Florida have been suspended by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for "a pattern of emboldening unacceptable behavior, including fraud and mismanagement."
Patricia Good, Donna Korn, Ann Murray and Laurie Rich Levinson have all been suspended from the board, effective immediately. DeSantis has appointed Torey Alston, Manual "Nandy" A. Serrano, Ryan Reiter, and Kevin Tynan as interim members in their stead.
"It is my duty to suspend people from office when there is clear evidence of incompetence, neglect of duty, misfeasance or malfeasance," DeSantis said in a statement. "This action is in the best interest of the residents and students of Broward County and all citizens of Florida."
\u201cThe Governor suspends 4 @browardschools board members. Effective now.\u201d— Frog Capital (@Frog Capital) 1661535612
DeSantis suspended the members at the behest of a grand jury which had been impaneled by the state supreme court after the horrific school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, back in February 2018. The job of the grand jury was to determine whether there had been any instances of fraud or mismanagement that may have caused lapses in security and safety in area schools.
The grand jury found that school safety had supposedly been "such a low priority" for the suspended board members that an alarm which some have suggested could have saved lives at MSD "remains uninstalled at multiple schools."
The grand jury report further claimed that "students continue to be educated in unsafe, aging, decrepit, moldy buildings that were supposed to have been renovated years ago."
The grand jury even claimed that the suspended board members routinely neglected their duties in favor of building their brands.
"Broward County has provided a cornucopia of examples of an almost fanatical desire to control data and use it to manipulate public perception, including that surrounding safety," the grand jury report states. The suspended members "are seemingly obsessed with the optics of any situation and control of public impressions of their activities."
However, critics of the grand jury claim that its report focuses mainly on the SMART Program, a public safety measure approved by voters in 2014 intended to improve campus safety. The report discusses the ballooning costs of the program and some questionable decisions made by the accused board members, as well as former superintendent Robert Runcie. The grand jury's myopic fixation on the SMART Program, critics say, was time and energy diverted from the original mission of the grand jury, which was to examine the events and the district's decisions leading up to the MSD shooting.
"It is disgusting that on the backs of these families to have a bait-and-switch grand jury,” said Levinson, one of the suspended board members. “The majority of the report has nothing to do with Marjory Stoneman Douglas."
Levinson is term-limited and therefore cannot seek re-election. However, fellow suspended board member Korn is in the midst of a run-off campaign for re-election, and she said in a statement last week, "[W]hile I respect the grand jury process, I stand on my record."
The grand jury also pointed a finger at former board member Rosalind Osgood and would likely have recommended her suspension, except she is no longer a board member.
Former superintendent Runcie resigned last year after he was indicted for allegedly lying to the grand jury. He has pled not guilty, though it is unclear when his trial will be held.
Ryan Petty, who lost his daughter Alaina in the 2018 Parkland school massacre, called out David Hogg on Sunday for pushing "absolute revisionist history."
Hogg was part of a group of pro-gun-control students from Stoneman Douglas High School who received national media attention after the tragedy. The students notably launched Never Again MSD and organized March for Our Lives.
Taking to social media to advance his pro-gun-control agenda, Hogg claimed he and his fellow students successfully worked with politicians to pass the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.
"I understand there are many disagreements about what we should do but the important thing is we all agree we need to do something," Hogg said. "In the week of Parkland we worked with our Republican Legislature and governor and got gun safety past [sic] Congress can do the same."
He added, "The law that we created has been used nearly 6000 times including one time to disarm somebody through a court order who threaten to kill my own mother. These laws work."
\u201cThe law that we created has been used nearly 6000 times including one time to disarm somebody through a court order who threaten to kill my own mother. These laws work.\u201d— David Hogg \ud83c\udf3b (@David Hogg \ud83c\udf3b) 1653850035
But according to Petty, Hogg only complicated the legislative process that resulted in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act being made law.
"This is absolute revisionist history and quite frankly, BS," Petty responded. "You did nothing but make it more difficult for us to get the MSD bill passed in the Florida Legislature. It's time to sit down, you charlatan."
\u201cThis is absolute revisionist history and quite frankly, BS. You did nothing but make it more difficult for us to get the MSD bill passed in the Florida Legislature. It's time to sit down, you charlatan.\u201d— Ryan Petty (@Ryan Petty) 1653873352
Petty then pointed to articles that debunked the narrative that the pro-gun-control students organized a national response by themselves with little help. In reality, the students were supported by Democratic politicians, progressive and liberal advocacy organizations, and even Hollywood celebrities like George Clooney.
In fact, "the reason we got anything done was because the legislative focus after Parkland WAS NOT just guns," Petty later added.
NBC News reporter Marc Caputo confirmed what Petty said.
"For two decades, I’ve covered Florida politics and the Legislature —including the MSD bill," Caputo said on Monday.
"I can confirm the GOP-led Legislature was most moved by the urging of the parents," he explained. "The two conservatives, Ryan & @AndrewPollackFL, were the most persuasive & played outsized roles."
\u201cFor two decades, I\u2019ve covered Florida politics and the Legislature \u2014including the MSD bill\n\nI can confirm the GOP-led Legislature was most moved by the urging of the parents\n\nThe two conservatives, Ryan & @AndrewPollackFL, were the most persuasive & played outsized roles\u201d— Marc Caputo (@Marc Caputo) 1653940822
freebeacon.com
www.theblaze.com