Parkland Jury Outcome Likely to Revamp Florida Death Penalty Law

After jurors spared the life of the Parkland shooter, families and state leaders called for change. This March, lawmakers in Tallahassee will likely buck national trends because of the high-profile crime and make it easier for a jury to recommend the death penalty in Florida.

The shooter confessed to the crime and pled guilty. After a grueling and emotional trial, in a 9 to 3 vote, the jury spared his life. The minority was reportedly led by one woman adamant against giving the shooter the death penalty. 

Victims’ families were outraged after the trial last year and are still outraged.

“They gave him the gift of life when he hunted down and tortured our loved ones,” Max Schachter said.

The shooter murdered Schacter’s son Alex. He was 14 years old.

“It’s not right what happened to us and if there was ever a case when an individual deserved the death penalty, you know the Parkland murderer is the one,” Schachter said.

He, and many of the families, support a proposal about to make its way through Tallahassee.

Former prosecutor and now Rep. Berny Jacques from Pinellas County filed HB 555. The bill still requires a unanimous jury to find someone eligible for the death penalty, but under the proposal, eight of the 12 jurors would need to recommend death.

“It happens more often than you would think,” Jacques said, pointing NBC 6 to a case in his district where a jury spared the life of a man convicted of killing Tarpon Springs police officer Charles Kondek.

“That heinous murderer escaped the death penalty because you had a small amount of holdouts who would refuse to go the distance and dole out true justice,” Jacques said.

A few years ago, a court decision forced Florida to require a unanimous jury to recommend the death penalty. Before that, a majority of the jury was needed but a judge still had the final say. The new proposal would get the state a bit closer to that old standard.

The bill is likely to pass.

Gov. Ron DeSantis supports the change, saying at a press conference after the trial that the shooter would have no shot at being exonerated.

“He’s guilty. Everyone knew he was guilty from the moment this happened,” DeSantis said.

This issue was one of the few things the governor and his opponent, Democratic Congressman Charlie Crist, agreed on during the election.

“I believe that young man should have gotten the death penalty for killing 17 innocent students in our schools. It was absolutely abhorrent,” Crist said during the governor’s debate.

All this puts Florida on a track counter to most of the country. While the death penalty is on the books in 27 states, only a handful carry out executions - mostly Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida. Virginia used to be a leader in executions but ceased the practice in the last few years.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Florida leads the nation in the number of people exonerated after being sentenced to death.

“The Parkland case is being used as a political excuse to get attention,” said Herman Lindsey, who spent three years on death row until the Florida Supreme Court unanimously reversed his verdict. He’s now an advocate against the death penalty.

He argues life behind bars is a harsher penalty while preventing a drawn out appeals process, which can take years and millions of dollars, according to state records obtained in the past by NBC 6 Investigators.

“Victims’ families feel like it’s going to bring them closure but this law just causes them to repeat this because there’s going to be so many appeals on this issue that they’ll keep coming back to court,” Lindsey said.

To the idea that Florida is moving away from national trends because of these crimes, the bill‘s author told NBC 6 Florida should separate from this issue.

“We don’t want to be like the rest of the nation on a lot of things. Florida is a leader in a lot of different categories,” Jacques said. “Florida takes pride in being a law-and-order state.”

The House bill is identical to the Senate version as of now. With DeSantis’s support, it is likely to pass.