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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
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]
99: 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]
$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). [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 death penalty states in 2020
#1 in the number of people exonerated off Death Row since 1973 (30)
#1 in number of new death sentences (7) (Down from 22 in 2012)
#2 in size of Death Row (333)
(From the Death Penalty Information Center)
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