TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida could soon be the only state where a judge could override a jury’s recommendation for a life sentence and give the death penalty instead, under proposed legislation to re-craft Florida’s capital punishment system.
In identical bills filed by Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, and Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, the legislation proposes that “notwithstanding the recommendation of the jury,” the court can “enter a sentence of life imprisonment or death.”
The language is nearly identical to Florida’s previous statute, which allowed judicial override until 2016, when the Legislature reworked the statute following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said judges had too much power, instead of juries, when it came to the death penalty.
