I’ll let the highlights speak for themselves, but you can read the full story on The Agitator.
- Florida State Rep. Matt Gaetz [chairman of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee in the Florida House of Representatives] is fed up with death row inmates and their endless appeals.
- Since Florida resumed executions in the 1970’s, 24 wrong-fully convicted Death Row prisoners have been exonerated while 74 prisoners have been executed. “That’s one exoneration for every three executions,” said Mark Elliott, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP),
- …at least six of Florida’s death row exonorees spent more than 10 years in prison. That means at least six (and probably more) were likely saved by those lengthy appeals that Gaetz wants to eliminate.
- This year, Florida has 21 new death sentences out of 78 nationally—that’s more than one quarter (26.9 percent) of all new death sentences in the U.S.
- But it isn’t just Gaetz. Most of the rest of the state’s legislators, prosecutors and public officials seem just as determined.
Hey, that’s just being “tough on crime”. Just ask the Florida voters that keep reelecting these self-serving headline grabbers. I am not apposed to the death penalty in principle. I just oppose state sanctioned execution of innocent people which is inevitable in any system, especially one where there are no repercussions for such mistakes.