18 April 2018 :

Steady decline in number of death sentences. Florida has been seeing a steady decline in the number of criminals sentenced to death. Currently, there are 347 inmates on death row, but only 96 have been put to death since 1979. In fact, 2016 and 2017 saw a record low, with only 6 people sent to death row combined; a number far fewer than any single year since the death penalty was reinstated nearly 50 years ago. Experts claim that a possible reason for these low numbers is the fact that jury convictions for death sentences have to be unanimous. Florida halted executions in January of 2016 after the U.S. Supreme Court claimed that the state's sentencing process was unconstitutional, which led to the requirement of the unanimous jury vote. Nationally, death sentences have dropped dramatically down 90 % in the last 20 years. However, experts say that the trend toward fewer death sentences isn't likely to continue. "It would not be unreasonable to anticipate that the numbers may increase again since the legislature has final responded to the U.S. Supreme Court," said Mark Schlakman, a human rights attorney. There has already been 1 person sentenced to death in Florida since the start of 2018.