Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that will allow eight jurors to be enough to impose capital punishment in state cases, making Florida the fourth state that will not require a unanimous vote to impose the death sentence.
The legislation, SB 450, allows for a two-thirds supermajority vote of jurors, and seeks to change a precedent on unanimous jury votes, Florida Politics reported.
In 2020, a Florida Supreme Court decision in the case of State v. Pool removed a requirement that a jury vote be unanimous on imposing a death sentence, pending a law to describe the circumstances behind an order.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the 2016 Hurst v. Florida ruling, said a simple majority of jurors was not enough to vote to execute a person.DeSantis earlier this year said he was interested in allowing executions in jury decisions that were not unanimous, telling the Florida Sheriff's Association that "maybe eight out of 12 have to agree? Or something. But we can’t be in a situation where one person can just derail this."
