DeSantis expands death penalty law for convicted child rapists, defying Supreme Court precedent

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill to allow capital punishment for those convicted of raping a child under age of 12, challenging the U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

Besides the measure aimed at making convicted child rapists eligible for capital punishment, with the minimum sentence of life in prison without parole, the two other bills will impose additional penalties on fentanyl and drug-related crimes targeted at children. Their aim is to protect Floridians from Democrat-supported bail reforms in liberal jurisdictions.  Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on Twitter: @danimwallace. 

"The other thing we're doing is making clear that in Florida we stand for the protection of children. And unfortunately, in our society, you have very heinous sex crimes that are committed against children under the age of 12 years old. These are really the worst of the worst. And what happens is, the perpetrators of these crimes are often times serial offenders," DeSantis said from the podium. "If they do that once, chances are they will do it again unless they're stopped. Unless they're incapacitated. We really believe that part of a just society is to have appropriate punishment. And so, if you commit a crime that is really, really heinous, you should have the ultimate punishment."