Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave final approval to a measure that puts an end to the requirement that all jury members need to vote unanimously to recommend the death penalty in capital cases. The new law, also referred to as Senate Bill 450, now requires just eight out of the total 12 jury members to vote…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has backed legislation that would allow capital punishment for pedophiles convicted of sexual battery against a child under the age of 12—a law that would directly challenge the Supreme Court’s landmark Kennedy v. Louisiana ruling. “We are authorizing the death penalty for child rapists, which is cutting against recent Supreme Court…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign into law a bill that would no longer require a jury to vote unanimously to condemn an offender to death. The bill, SB 450, was drafted last year in the wake of Nikolas Cruz receiving life in prison for killing 17 students and staff members at Marjory…

The Supreme Court refused—over the dissent of three liberal justices—on April 3 to take up an appeal by a death row prisoner in Louisiana who was seeking a new sentencing hearing. The inmate, David Brown, argued the prosecution improperly withheld a confession from a co-defendant that could have affected the sentence Brown was given. The…

Commentary What is the usefulness, morality, and appropriateness of the death penalty, especially as a deterrent and a consequence of carrying out atrocious crimes? Published last year, “The Boys of Biloxi” is John Grisham’s new vintage legal thriller novel that deals with an important and perennial issue: the use of the death penalty as a…

The majority of Canadians would agree with bringing back the death penalty for murder, according to a new poll by Research Co. Of 1,000 Canadian adults polled between March 10 to March 12, 54 percent said they supported capital punishment for those convicted of murder, a three point increase since a similar poll roughly one…

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5–4 decision that divided the court’s conservatives that a death row inmate in Arizona is entitled to contest his sentence in federal court after a state court’s procedural rule prevented him from doing so. Appeals from prisoners under a death sentence rarely succeed at the high court but…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the Florida Legislature to change a state law that requires a unanimous jury vote to impose a death sentence. Speaking at the Florida Sheriffs Association Winter Conference in St. Johns County on Jan. 23, DeSantis called upon Florida’s legislators to reconsider the state’s requirement that a jury must vote unanimously…

A bipartisan bill proposed in the Kentucky legislature would eliminate the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole for inmates sentenced to capital punishment. The bill was filed in the Kentucky Senate in January by Democrat Sen. Gerald Neal and Republican Sens. Julie Raque Adams and Stephen Meredith. The bill would “abolish…

BONNE TERRE, Mo.—A Missouri man convicted of ambushing and killing a St. Louis area police officer he blamed in the death of his younger brother was executed Tuesday night. Kevin Johnson, 37, died after an injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre. It was the state’s second execution this year and the…