DeSantis signs bills tackling fentanyl, cash bail and child rapeGov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed three crime bills that would stiffen penalties for child rapists and fentanyl traffickers and cut the prospect of statewide bail reform off at the knees.
The bills — including one that would challenge existing U.S. Supreme Court precedent on capital punishment — were part of a package that DeSantis said would “uphold law and order” throughout the Sunshine State.
“Part of doing well is preempting things before they happen,” he said during a bill-signing ceremony in Titusville. “We can sit there and wait for things to go south, but if you can get ahead, it does make a difference. So here is us looking. And we’re proud of what we’ve done, but we also understand we’ve got to stay ahead of the curve. So we’re doing that here today, and I think the state will be better off for it.”
DeSantis said he wanted to differentiate Florida from states like New York and Illinois, which have initiated criminal justice reforms like the elimination of cash bail.
Critics say that practice, which allows people charged with a crime to pay their way out of jail before an initial hearing, disproportionately harms minorities and the poor. DeSantis said tightening cash bail laws prevents “a culture of recidivism, repeat offenders, and a situation where crime is spiraling out of control.”
“We don’t want to go down that road,” he said. “So what we’ve done is we’ve looked across the country: Where are some of these jurisdictions falling down, and how can we make sure Florida can protect its people?”
The first bill DeSantis signed, HB 1627, calls for the Florida Supreme Court to create a uniform set of bail bond recommendations by the end of the year. The law allows lower courts to increase bail amounts, but not lower them without Supreme Court approval — a provision that DeSantis would “handcuff” “pro-criminal judges.”
The bill, which drew votes from some Democrats in addition to Republicans, also prevents the pretrial release of certain arrestees, including habitual offenders or those charged with certain violent or felony-level crimes.
“This is kind of the anti-New York, in terms of what we’re doing,” DeSantis said. “They wanted to basically say that a lot of these crimes should be treated with a slap on the wrist. We’re doing the opposite....................
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2023/05/01/desantis-death-penalty-fentanyl-bail-reform-child-rape/
