Capital Punishment in Florida - Crimes Punishable By Death

Crimes Punishable By Death

In the pre-Furman period, murder was not the only capital crime. People were also sentenced and executed for rape (until the end of the pre-Furman period), and in earlier years also for aiding runaway slaves.

Currently, Florida's capital crimes are:

• First-degree murder
• Felony murder
• Capital drug trafficking
• Capital Sexual Battery. Florida Statue 794.011.2.a states that "A person 18 years of age or older who commits sexual battery upon, or in an attempt to commit sexual battery injures the sexual organs of, a person less than 12 years of age commits a capital felony."

As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime or mentally retarded are constitutionally precluded from being executed.

Due to the Supreme Court case Coker v. Georgia in 1977, only those convicted of murder may receive the death penalty. Coker's holding however was specific in that the eighth amendment prohibited the death penalty for rape of an adult. The United States Supreme Court remained silent on the issue of death for rape of a child. The Florida Supreme Court however held that under the reasoning of Coker, death was a disproportionate penalty for rape of a child; the Court in doing so relied on the cruel or unusual punishment clause of the Florida State constitution which could have had a different meaning than the Constitution of the United States. Florida voters however approved an initiative that amended the Florida constitution to state that the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments found in the Constitution of the state of Florida has the same meaning and effect as the eighth amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In 2008, the United States Supreme Court in Kennedy v. Louisiana limited the death penalty to only crimes which result in an individual's death, crimes against the state (i.e. espionage, treason) or drug trafficking, relying on the Eighth Amendment in parallel with the ultimate holding of the Florida Supreme Court.