Florida, once the leading state in the death penalty, has been ramping up its use of the death penalty. In 2023, Florida passed a law making the sexual assault of a child under 12 by an adult a capital crime, making it the second state allowing non-unanimous juries to impose a death sentence. This made Florida just the second state \u2014 Alabama being the other \u2014 allowing non-unanimous juries to impose a death sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In January 2025, the state legislature passed the so-called Trump Act, mandating \u201cthe automatic imposition of the death penalty for \u2018unauthorized aliens\u2019 convicted of capital offenses.\u201d DeSantis signed the legislation, even though it was a marked departure from Supreme Court precedent dating back to 1976 forbidding mandatory death sentences. In June, Florida passed legislation expanding the death penalty to offenses including cases of child sex trafficking and opening the door for the use of any method of execution \u201cdeemed\u201d constitutional, rather than specifying particular methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The spike in executions may be driven by DeSantis\u2019s political ambitions. He is term-limited and could be eyeing a position in the Trump administration. In May, the governor reiterated his support for capital punishment, saying that there are \u201csome crimes that are so horrific that the only appropriate punishment is the death penalty.\u201d However, Florida\u2019s recent death penalty history suggests that something else is at work. From 2020 to 2022, during DeSantis\u2019s first term, it carried out no executions. In 2023, as DeSantis ramped up his presidential campaign, he signed six death warrants. In 2024, during most of which he was no longer a candidate, he signed just one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n