Florida Legislature actually did something right this year
Amid so much that’s wrong with this year’s session of the Florida Legislature, three particular bills are relief from its far-right radicalism and urgently deserve the public’s attention and strong support.
▪ House Bill 7051 is a late-arriving response to the public’s righteous demand for reforms in police training and practice prompted by the murder of George Floyd under a Minneapolis police officer’s knee. Although it doesn’t have a counterpart in the House — a real problem with the session scheduled to end April 30 — it has the unusual distinction of strong bipartisan support, reflecting cooperation among the House Republican leadership, the Black Caucus and law enforcement. Failure to pass this bill would be a damning indictment of a state government whose first response was the new law that will discourage and punish future mass protests.
▪ Senate Bill 100, now awaiting a vote in the House, would repeal the worst of the toll road boondoggle that was the Legislature’s goingaway gift to then-Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, two years ago. It does away with the unnecessary and environmentally destructive Heartland Parkway route between Polk and Collier counties, which never had met the state’s objective criteria for determining need. The bill retains parts of the 2019 bill in that it calls for improvements to U.S. 19 along the Gulf Coast and for an unspecified extension of the Florida Turnpike past its Wildwood intersection with I-75. This bill’s prospects look very good, but with the Florida Legislature nothing can be taken for granted. The plucking of Galvano’s toll roads turkey would be a public victory on a par with the environmentalist campaign that halted construction of the Cross Florida Barge Canal four decades ago.
▪ Senate Bill 1156, by Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, would prohibit the execution of murderers who are seriously mentally ill when they committed their crimes, substituting life in prison without parole. This would be the first humane reform to the death penalty that wasn’t forced upon the Legislature by a court. After an 8-0 vote in the Criminal Justice Committee, it awaits consideration by the Judiciary Committee.
Brandes couldn’t find another Republican to sponsor it in the House, so there is no realistic chance of it becoming law this session. But it is important for the full Senate to approve it as a benchmark for the future. A society that professes to be civilized shouldn’t be putting to death those who are so ill that they think they’re Jesus or some other prince of God, to cite two who were executed after doctors concluded they understood why they were being put to death.
The proposal isn’t to be confused with the insanity defense, which rarely prevails because it is an alternative to a finding of guilt. Under Brandes’ bill, serious mental illness would be a separate question affecting only the possible sentence. It would put clinical mental illness on a par with intellectual disability. The execution of mentally retarded prisoners already is barred by the U.S. Supreme Court.
It is a sad commentary on Florida government, however, that its first reaction to the widespread protests over police violence was to enact a so-called “anti-riot” law that might have been written by the dictators of Russia or China. The most savage and distinguishing feature of House Bill 1, which Gov. Ron DeSantis had ordered up and eagerly signed Monday, effectively requires everyone swept up in a police crackdown to spend at least a night in jail, regardless of posted bond schedules, until a first appearance where a judge can set bail. This is plainly meant to discourage even peaceful attendance at demonstrations.
Only a legislature willfully indifferent to appearances could prioritize such repressive legislation before turning to the praiseworthy reforms in police practices that are embodied in HB 7051.
The bill applies to correctional and probation officers as well as police. Some of its major provisions require the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission to develop policies emphasizing proportional use of force, de-escalation techniques and limiting chokeholds to situations involving imminent danger to themselves or others. It creates a duty to render care and requires other officers to intervene if another is applying excessive force. Additionally, children younger than seven could no longer be arrested and charged criminally except for forcible felonies.
To guard against itinerant rogue officers, job applicants would have to disclose whether they are or were under investigation elsewhere. Agencies would have to maintain an officer’s records for five years after dismissal, resignation or retirement, and independent investigations by another agency would have to take place in cases involving injury, death or the discharge of a firearm. Such incidents would have to be reported quarterly to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Conspicuously missing, however, are any steps to overcome the secrecy illogically imposed by Florida’s First District Court of Appeal on the identities of police officers who may be suspected of excessive force. By claiming victimhood themselves, they now can invoke Marsy’s Law, the constitutional amendment meant to protect the victims of actual crime.
Taking Marsy’s Law another absurd step further, the Florida Highway Patrol and some police agencies are refusing to release the names of people involve in traffic accidents even when there is no likelihood of a crime having been committed and even without any request by the citizens themselves. Citing Marsy’s Law, the FHP withheld the name of a 17-year-old motorist who had been electrocuted when she stepped out of her burning car onto a downed power line. In 2019, Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, filed implementing legislation for Marsy’s Law that would have stopped police from using it to shield themselves from accusations of misconduct. The bill didn’t get a hearing.
House Bill 7051 is a wonderfully appropriate context for language to correct such arrogant violations of the public’s right to know. It would do no violence to Marsy’s Law to require an actual request from a real victim before a name is withheld.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of consists of Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email letters@sun-sentinel.com.