Up in Tallahassee, there’s a new bill that will be considered in the 2015 session of the Florida House:  if it is passed into law, it will force the State of Florida to reveal the names of those people who act as executioners in Florida death penalty executions.

Right now, no one knows who these people are. This is not traditional, historically.

While there were those black-hooded executioners, the identity of most executioners over time has been known to the public. The man who beheaded Lady Jane Grey, for instance, was not secret (read an eyewitness account of that execution, where her last conversation was with her executioner).

Ditto those who took Marie Antoinette to the French Guillotine (her execution seen in the image below)

 

Florida Bill HB 4003

If HB 4003 is passed, then those who want to do away with capital punishment think that they will be one step closer to ending the death penalty in Florida. Why? Well, for one thing, Florida executes with lethal injection and we would all know the amount of medical training (or lack thereof) of the state executioners.

Remember Oklahoma’s botched lethal injection execution? It’s a big question now in that state — what training or expertise did that executioner have?

Here is the synopsis of the proposed law to reveal the name and identity of Florida executioners (for the full 36 page text of the proposed law go here):

HB 4003 — Death Penalty

Death Penalty: Deletes provisions providing for death penalty for capital felonies; deletes associated provisions, including provisions relating to representation in death penalty cases, capital collateral representation, jurors in capital cases, prohibiting imposition of death sentence on defendant with mental retardation, determination of whether to impose sentence of death or life imprisonment for capital felony or capital drug trafficking felony, issuance of warrant of execution, stay of execution of death sentence, proceedings when person under sentence of death appears to be insane, proceedings when person under sentence of death appears to be pregnant, grounds for death warrant, execution of death sentence, prohibition against reduction of death sentence as result of determination that method of execution is unconstitutional, sentencing orders in capital cases, regulation of execution, transfer to state prison for safekeeping before death warrant issued, return of warrant of execution issued by Governor, sentence of death unexecuted for unjustifiable reasons, & return of warrant of execution issued by Supreme Court.