Death Penalty

Florida is preparing to execute James Phillip Barnes, 61, who was convicted of strangling his wife and brutally murdering another woman years earlier.

Duane Owen was sentenced to death for the Palm Beach County rape and fatal stabbing of Karen Slattery, 14, and for the rape and deadly hammer attack two months later on Georgianna Worden, 38.

Without explanation, the Supreme Court issued an order rejecting requests by inmate Duane Owen's lawyers to halt Thursday's planned execution. The Florida Supreme Court also issued two opinions last week refusing to block the execution.

A man convicted of killing and sexually assaulting a teenage girl and another woman in separate South Florida attacks in 1984 is set to be executed next month.

They include laws on abortion, affordable housing, the death penalty, immigration and LGBTQ+ issues.

The law permits the death penalty even in cases where only eight of 12 jurors approve. Two formerly condemned inmates who are still behind bars say the change gives too much power over life and death to prosecutors.

56-year-old Darryl B. Barwick confessed to killing 24-year-old Rebecca Wendt in her Panama City apartment complex on March 31, 1986.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the the bill Monday along with two other components of his criminal justice legislative package.

Agreement is needed from only eight jurors for a death penalty recommendation. That’s under a new Florida law signed by Gov. DeSantis.

Florida juries can now send someone to death row with an 8-4 vote.

Legislators approved a bill that will allow death penalty sentences with the recommendation of at least eight jurors in favor. It now heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis' desk.

Louis Bernard Gaskin, 56, was put to death Wednesday at 6 p.m. for the 1989 deaths of a couple in Flagler County.