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EXECUTE JUSTICE…NOT PEOPLE
There is no power on earth greater than an idea whose time has come.
– Victor Hugo via Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Here are some important Florida Death Penalty numbers
26 – exonerations of Florida Death Row prisoners due to evidence of wrongful conviction – highest in the nation.[1]
92 – Floridians put to death since executions re-started in 1979 (more than 1 exoneration for every 4 executions).[2]
400 – approximate number of people awaiting execution on Florida’s Death Row.[3]
10 to 2 – the majority jury vote needed to recommend a sentence of death (All other jury votes in Florida law are required to be unanimous, even in civil cases. The only exception is in recommending death).
1 of 5 – new death sentences in the U.S. are from Florida (9 of 49 nationally in 2015).[4]
$51 MILLION+ A YEAR – the ANNUAL amount Florida taxpayers pay to try to enforce the Death Penalty, over and above the cost seeking Life in Prison Without Parole for these same defendants ($1 million a week). [5]
14,000+ – unsolved homicides accumulated in the 30 years since Florida executions resumed (lack of funding prevents most of these homicides from ever being solved. Re-allocating Death Penalty funds to solving violent crimes is just one example of smarter, better use of our crime-fighting dollars. (i.e., “Execute Justice…Not People”).[6]
3 – Prosecutors are over 3 times more likely to seek the Death Penalty when the victim is white than when the victim is African-American.[7]
3 of the 5 – women sentenced to death in the U.S. in 2011 were from Florida.[8] All 3 are women of color.[9]
NEVER – Never in the history of Florida (170 years), has a white person been executed for killing an African-American.[10]
80% – 12 of 15 people sentenced to death in Duval County (2009 – 2012) were African-American. 100% 5 of 5 in 2011.[11]
TOP 5 – China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. were the top 5 executing nations in 2015.[12]
62% of Floridians now favor some form of Life In Prison Without Parole for convicted murderers, while only
35% of Floridians prefer the death penalty for convicted murderers. (Public Policy Polling – Feb. 8, 2016)
How Florida compared with other death penalty states in 2015
#1 in the number of people exonerated off Death Row since 1973 (26)
#2 in number of new death sentences (9)
#2 in size of Death Row (400+)
#4 in number of executions (2)
(From the Death Penalty Information Center)
Download the 2016 fact sheet (PDF)
Sources
[1] Death Penalty Information Center, “Innocence and the Death Penalty.”
[2] Florida Department of Corrections, “Execution List: 1976 – Present.”
[3] Florida Department of Corrections, “Death Row Roster.”
[4] Death Penalty Information Center, “Death Sentences in the U.S. From 1977 By State and By Year.”
[5] “The High Price of Killing Killers,” Palm Beach Post, January 4, 2000.
[6] FBI Uniform Crime Reports, Supplemental Homicide Reports: http://www.scrippsnews.com/projects/murder-mysteries/database.
[7]Florida Supreme Court Racial and Ethnic Bias Study Commission, 1991.
[8] Death Penalty Information Center, “Women and the Death Penalty.”
[9] Florida Department of Corrections, “Women on Death Row.”
[10] Radelet, Michael. Recent Developments in the Death Penalty in Florida, 2001. For data on executions after 2001, see Clark County Prosecuting Attorneys Office. (note – 4 people now on Death Row fit this category)
[11] Florida Department of Corrections, “Death Row Roster.”
[12] Amnesty International, “Death Sentences and Executions in 2015.”