Since taking office in 2010, Florida Governor Rick Scott has signed death warrants for 14 condemned inmates. 13 of those have already been executed.
Today, Governor Scott signed the death warrant for a man convicted of a brutal double murder in Broward County in 1987. He will be executed March 20, 2014, provided no stay is granted.
No Florida governor has ordered as many executions as Rick Scott has since the death penalty was nationally reinstated in 1977.
During this past week, the man convicted of the killing of young Jimmy Ryce back in the mid 1990s was executed by lethal injection.
Florida law permits the death penalty for first-degree murders where statutorily-defined aggravating factors are proven to a jury. The judge then has the power to affirm the jury’s recommendation or override it, imposing a life sentence instead.
Eric Matheny is a criminal defense attorney serving Miami-Dade and Broward.