DeSantis steps up pace of executions in Florida, chasing Trump

Some death penalty experts say DeSantis’ sudden drive is powered by politics, part of a grim chase of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.

TALLAHASSEE – After overseeing only two executions during his first four years in office, Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to carry out his fifth in six months, with Brevard County murderer James Barnes set to die Aug. 3.

While president, Trump set a remarkable record of executing 13 federal inmates during his last six months in office. Trump executed more civilian prisoners during his term than any president since President Grover Cleveland in 1896.

“This is bluster for DeSantis,” said Abe Bonowitz, executive director and co-founder of Death Penalty Action, who has fought against capital punishment for more than 30 years in Florida and nationwide.

“He needs a way to equate himself with Trump on this issue. It’s all about looking for help with certain parts of the base.”

Although DeSantis is the former president’s closest rival for the GOP nomination, polls show the Florida governor trailing by huge margins across the nation, even losing ground to Trump from surveys earlier this year across key primary states.

DeSantis has been campaigning almost full-time since declaring his candidacy in May. But he badly needs a spark, and has tried to attack Trump as soft of crime.

Death penalty part of DeSantis' conservative pitch

DeSantis hasn’t spoken about the reasons behind his accelerated pace of executions. But he has clearly leaned into a conservative agenda on criminal justice and a host of cultural issues during the legislative session preceding his official presidential announcement.

DeSantis signed into law a measure making it easier for juries to apply the death penalty – allowing for only an 8-4 vote. The move followed the less-than-unanimous vote that resulted in Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz being sentenced to life in prison.

Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature endorsed DeSantis’ push to enhance capital punishment laws.

Torres: Murderer's family anxiously awaits his execution

“I do not celebrate when we have an execution,” said Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, during debate about changing the jury vote requirement. “It’s a very sad day to me...But at the same time, if we’re going to have accountability, you have to have something that happens where you ultimately pay with your life if you ignore all the bounds.”

DeSantis also approved legislation that makes child rapists eligible for the death penalty, which conflicts with a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found such punishment unconstitutional in cases where the victim did not die.

A legal challenge to that new Florida law could eventually make its way to the high court, where the conservative majority may be ready to reconsider that 15-year-old ruling.

Florida has 293 inmates on Death Row, some since the 1970s.

Timing tied to host of issues, governor's office says

DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern said a range of issues contribute to the timing of executions.

“Factors deciding death warrants include the complete exhaustion of remaining appeals and the egregiousness of the crime(s) committed,” Redfern said in an email.

“The procedure is far more complicated – and involves many more people and resources – than is commonly understood,” he added.

Redfern cited the availability of the lethal injection drug protocol, which has been a problem for states, and coordinating with Corrections Department officials, witnesses and family members of victims.

In case you missed it: DeSantis signs death warrant for Brevard man convicted of killing Melbourne nurse in 1988

The COVID-19 pandemic and other periods of state emergencies, such as hurricanes, also affect scheduling, he added.

All four of the men DeSantis executed this year had been on death row for more than 30 years: Donald Dillbeck, Louis Gaskin, Darryl Barwick and last month, Duane Owen. The average time on Florida’s death row is almost 23 years, according to Florida Corrections Department records.

Barnes, who waived his right to a jury and represented himself in the case, pleaded guilty in 2006 to the first-degree murder of 41-year-old Patricia "Patsy" Miller along with burglary, two counts of sexual battery with a weapon and arson during a random break-in of a Melbourne condominium. He has been on death row since the conviction.

Miller’s homicide went unsolved for a decade before Barnes confessed to killing the nurse in a letter he wrote to an assistant state attorney in 2005. Previously, in 1997, DNA evidence was matched with Barnes, who had already been questioned in the case, but he refused to talk with Brevard County sheriff's agents, court records show. No charges were filed until an indictment was handed down by a Brevard County grand jury.

In 1998, Barnes was already serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife, Linda Barnes, who was strangled to death on Dec. 11, 1997. The letter in which he confessed to killing Miller was sent after Barnes converted to Islam, telling prosecutors he wanted to clear his conscience while fasting during Ramadan, a holy month on the Islamic calendar.

The last prisoner executed from Brevard County was Mark Dean Schwab in 2008. He was convicted of raping and killing 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez in 1992.

DeSantis expands death penalty DeSantis signs law allowing death penalty for child rape, defying US Supreme Court ruling

More from John Torres: DeSantis misses mark on new death penalty laws | Opinion

Florida's record of wrongful convictions worse than many states

The Death Penalty Information Center also cites that 30 inmates in Florida were among the 191 people in the U.S. exonerated of their crimes and taken off death row since 1972, a rate of wrongful conviction much higher than the national average.  Among those: Cuban immigrant Juan Ramos was convicted of murder in Brevard County and sentenced to die in the electric chair. But the Florida Supreme Court overturned his conviction because of “junk science” testimony from dog handler John Preston. Ramos was retried and found not guilty. The jury was only out for a couple of hours in his case. Preston was later exposed as a fraud.

Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University School of Law, said Florida has put itself on the “extreme edge” of U.S. states with the new capital sentencing laws signed by the governor.

But, he added, DeSantis appears to be playing to Republican voters who remain overwhelmingly supportive of the death penalty. That endures despite research casting doubt on whether capital punishment plays any role in deterring crime.

It also carries extraordinary legal costs for governments to carry out, Medwed said.

“DeSantis’ moves on the death penalty are a microcosm of a larger political debate going on and the trend toward deep partisanship,” Medwed said. “The people on the right are trying to show they’re tough on crime and those on the left are showing their openness to criminal justice reform.”

“The death penalty is really the tip of the spear in this fight,” he added.

Executions get thumbs up from GOP voting base

The Pew Research Center found that most respondents who identify with the Republican Party favor the death penalty – with 42% strongly supporting it, according to a 2020 survey. Most who identify with the Democratic Party oppose the death penalty, with 29% saying the strongly oppose it.

Given such balances, DeSantis’ aggressive use of capital punishment may help him court GOP support. But, like many of his policies on free speech, LGBTQ rights, gun access and abortion, DeSantis’ approach could alienate huge swaths of voters if he can somehow win the Republican nomination and square off against President Joe Biden.

“It seems like there’s disconnect between the short game of earning the Republican nomination and then winning the general,” Medwed said.

Still, a Gallup poll from last October showed overall, Americans were in favor of the death penalty for murderers, 55%-42%.

Even with that, though, there are signs of rising opposition to capital punishment. Only 27 states authorize the death penalty and five of them currently have a moratorium on executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The most recent halt was in Republican-led Ohio, where Gov. Mike DeWine paused executions because of the state’s inability to obtain drugs from pharmaceutical companies to carry out lethal injections. Three more executions scheduled there for this year have been postponed.

Biden has moratorium on federal executions − after Trump surge

More than 70% of countries around the world have effectively abolished the death penalty, including all but one European nation. The Biden administration has enacted a moratorium on carrying out federal death sentences since July 2021 after the surge at the end of Trump’s term.

Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said it’s not surprising that capital punishment has emerged early in the presidential contest, noting that it “always been a political tool,” used by Democratic and Republican administrations.

“It is the ultimate expression of governmental power and authority,” she added.

DeSantis, Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence are among the Republican presidential candidates now campaigning on increased use of the death penalty.

“But there is a growing awareness that the death penalty is remarkably inefficient and terribly expensive,” Maher said. “What will you get when candidates say they’ll use the death penalty more often? Will communities be safer? I don’t think that will be true,” she added.

John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport. Reporter J.D. Gallop of Florida Today contributed to this report.

Support local journalism and become a subscriber. Visit floridatoday.com/subscribe

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida executions: DeSantis' pace up in 2023, compared to first term