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You are here: Home / About Florida’s Death Penalty

About Florida’s Death Penalty

“There is no power on earth greater than an idea whose time has come.”

– Victor Hugo via Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Florida Death Penalty Fact Sheet (2020)

EXECUTE JUSTICE… NOT PEOPLE

Click here to download a printable version of this brochure.

Version en español

 

Florida Death Penalty by the Numbers (2020)

30 exonerations of people on Florida Death Row since 1973 due to evidence of wrongful conviction – highest in the nation. [1]

Racial Bias: Three-fourths (22) of exonerated Florida Death Row survivors are people of color: 17 Black, 5 Latino, 8 White [1]

100: Floridians put to death since executions re-started in 1979 [2]

Shocking Rate of Error – For every three people executed in Florida, one innocent person on Death Row has been exonerated and released.

333: approximate number of people awaiting execution on Florida’s Death Row. [3]

Over $51 million per 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). [4]

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”). [5]

The Legacy of Lynching: The four youngest juveniles executed in Florida’s electric chair were 16 years old. All four children were Black. Fortune Ferguson (age 13) was arrested, tried, and convicted in 24-hours. [6]

1877-1950: For much of this era Florida had the highest per capita rate of lynchings in the U.S. with more than 300 known lynchings. [7]

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. [8]

3 of the 5 women sentenced to death in the U.S. in 2011 were from Florida. [9] All 3 are women of color. [10]

NEVER in the history of Florida (170 years), has a white person been executed soley for killing an African-American. [11]

80%: 12 of 15 people sentenced to death in Duval County (2009 – 2012) were African-American. 100% 5 of 5 in 2011. [12]

Top 6 Executing Nations in 2019: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, and the U.S. [13]

62% of Floridians now favor some form of Life In Prison for convicted murderers, while only

35% of Floridians prefer the death penalty for people convicted of murderer. [14]

How Florida Compared with Other States (2020)

#1 in the number of people exonerated off Death Row since 1973 (30)

#1 in the number of new death sentences (7) (Down from 22 in 2012)

#2 in size of Death Row (333)

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] “The High Price of Killing Killers,” Palm Beach Post, January 4, 2000.

[5] FBI Uniform Crime Reports, Supplemental Homicide Reports: http://www.scrippsnews.com/projects/murder-mysteries/database.

[6] Florida Department of Corrections, “Death Row”

[7] Equal Justice Initiative, “Lynching in America”

[8] Florida Supreme Court Racial and Ethnic Bias Study Commission, 1991.

[9] Death Penalty Information Center, “Women and the Death Penalty.”

[10] Florida Department of Corrections, “Women on Death Row.”

[11] Amnesty International, “Darkness Visible in the Sunshine State. 2018

[12] Florida Department of Corrections, “Death Row Roster.”

[13] Amnesty International, “Death Sentences and Executions in 2020.”

[14] Public Policy Polling, February 8, 2016

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