Contact: Sharon Singh, [email protected], 202-675-8579, @AIUSAmedia
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) –Frank Jannuzi, deputy executive director for Amnesty International USA, issued the following statement after Florida Governor Rick Scott signed the “Timely Justice Act of 2013” (TJA). This law will speed up the pace of death penalty executions in Florida.
“While two thirds of the world’s countries and one third of U.S. states have abandoned capital punishment, it is shameful that the state of Florida is accelerating its flawed and dysfunctional death penalty system.
“Two dozen people have been exonerated from Florida’s death row due to evidence of their innocence. The state with the second most exonerees, Illinois, took the appropriate action – first halting executions and then abolishing the death penalty altogether.
“Florida is headed in the wrong direction. By speeding up its broken death penalty, it is already on the wrong side of history. It needs to do a U-turn before it does more irreparable harm.”