I Don't Understand Ronnie's Thinking Here. (I Won't Call It "Logic," Because There Isn't Any.)

Ron 'DeathSantis' Slammed For Florida's New Death Penalty Bill (msn.com)

So, Ronnie is so bloodthirsty that he wants the state of Florida to execute convicted people if eight of 12 jurors vote that way.  It's always been unanimous, but Ronnie doesn't want too much that would "derail" the chance to execute more people.  We can set aside any concern about whether or not anyone gets a fair trial, or whether sentencing is applied blindly.

If there was any "good news" here, it's that Ronnie has made abundantly clear that he is in no way, for what it's worth, "pro-life."  He likes people killed.  What he claims has so motivated him to want the court system to be able to kill more people is Nikolas Cruz and the Parkland school massacre.  Cruz was of course doing exactly what Ronnie, now also called "DeathSantis," wants done: he heavily armed himself, as Ronnie believes Floridians should feel free to do, and he punished people who he told himself made him feel bad.  Ronnie doesn't concern himself with Cruz's state of mind any more than he concerns himself with what people like jurors think.

Ronnie's proposal is that a jury should be able to impose a death sentence on the strength of a "supermajority."  What's curious is that although he whines that one juror should not have the power to "derail" Ronnie's blood lust, "DeSantis said he [emphasis mine] believed...Cruz...deserved the death penalty."  So, one juror should not be able to prevent an execution, but one person who was not a juror should be able to cause one.  (I know, Ronnie did say he wanted eight jurors to agree with him, but this is the blood lust, if I so much as think you seem threatening, the state will let me kill you, "make my day," state of Florida, and Ronnie seems to feel fairly sure that if he can just disqualify four jurors who spent however much time listening to all the evidence, and conferring with each other, he can find eight who are as lusty as he is.

And he was slightly grudging about agreeing to having to rely on eight jurors: "Fine, have a supermajority."  Maybe in reality, as much as it would offend or gall him to have one juror who didn't think someone should be executed, it would not have bothered him to rely on just one juror who did think someone should be executed.

This kind of initiative puts Florida in elite company, too.  At the moment, only Alabama (when Alabama's ahead of you, you know you're not trying hard enough, unless we're talking college sports) allows death sentences on less than unanimous agreement from a jury.  So, Ronnie wants us to be like Alabama in terms of a frenzy to execute people.

In fact, Ronnie has a small collection of initiatives that will allow more Floridians to die.  He doesn't want them protected from the coronavirus, he wants them all heavily armed, and in a mindset to kill each other, and he gives a wide berth to farmers who are poisoning the water supply.

I liked Charlie Crist when he was our governor.  He was a Republican in those days.  But Floridian voters chose Ronnie over Crist by a substantial margin last year.  There's something very wrong with us.