Lawmakers in Florida on Tuesday passed a bill that would allow the death penalty for people who commit sexual battery on children under age 12.
Lawmakers hope the bill (HB 1297) will ultimately lead to the U.S. Supreme Court reversing a 2008 decision that barred the death penalty for people who rape children. The state House passed the bill last week.
The bill will see people convicted of pedophilia and child sex offenses given the death penalty.
The bill was given the green light after Florida Senator Ron DeSantis backed the proposed legislation in order to clamp down on sex crimes against children under the age of 12.
The bipartisan proposal was passed forward to be enshrined in law with a vote of 34-5 late Tuesday.
State Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book and Republican State Senator Jonathan Martin co-sponsored the bipartisan bill, arguing that those who sexually violate children are likely to repeat their crime and therefore deserve to pay the ultimate price.
“Once a predator has a child ensnared, they will harm that child over and over and over again,” Book said, as per The New York Post.
“And then move on to another innocent child.”
She added: “Pedophile behavior has been deemed highly repetitive to the point of compulsion.”
DeSantis threw his support behind the bill in a radio interview with WFLA on Monday (April 17).
“We are authorizing the death penalty for child rapists,” he said.
“My view is you have some of these people that will be serial rapists of six, seven-year-old kids.
“I think the death penalty is the only appropriate punishment when you have situations like that.”
The bill will also hand juries the power to hand down death sentences with a vote of at least 8-4 in favor of the ultimate penalty.
Previously, the death sentence required an unanimous vote to see pedophiles put to death as penance for their crimes.
By Wanjiru Mbaru