Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) this week signed legislation aimed to protect children and other victims of crime, requiring serious criminals to remain in custody as they await sentencing to prevent further criminal acts.
The Sunshine State governor signed House Bill 445, which reworks the pretrial detention system for “specified dangerous crimes.” If a criminal is awaiting the sentencing for a crime under that category, he or she will be required to wait for the verdict while in custody rather than being released on bond.
The law is also referred to as “Missy’s Law,” named after a 5-year-old girl who was murdered by her abusive stepfather Daniel Spencer, who was out on bail and awaiting sentencing for trying to meet a 15-year-old for sex. Prosecutors asked the judge, Leon County Judge Tiffany Baker-Carper, to revoke the bail, asserting that Spencer was a dangerous criminal who should not be free. Baker-Carper refused, and the Spencer went on to murder his 5-year-old stepdaughter while out on bail — a horrific crime that DeSantis said was totally preventable.
“So you have somebody that’s convicted of a crime, a serious crime, a lot of times the judge will remand them to custody, then they do a sentencing, and then the judge administers the sentence,” DeSantis said. “But you don’t release the convict just because you haven’t done sentencing yet.”
“Now there’s some court systems they sentence you immediately after conviction. It’s not how it’s done. I know in the military, that’s what you do. That’s not necessarily how it’s done in civil civil courts throughout the United States. So if you have somebody convicted of a serious crime, revoke their bail, send them to jail, knowing that they’re going to get a sentence of imprisonment — probably very lengthy anyways,” DeSantis said, noting that most judges in Florida have done that.
However, not all of them have.
“So the situation with Missy. She’s got this stepfather, big time scumbag. He was convicted. First of all, he was abusing Missy. She’s like five years old, doing all that really, really bad, what was going on in the home. But then he gets convicted trying to meet a 15-year-old for sex, and so he gets brought up on charges. He’s out on bail, then he gets convicted,” he said, emphasizing that this man was “convicted of attempting against a minor.”
“That’s a felony, that’s a serious offense. And the prosecutors went to her, they said, ‘Judge, this is this is a dangerous individual. You need to revoke the bail. Please revoke the bail.’ And she refused to do that. She put him out on bail pending sentence,” he said.
“And what happened in between that decision and the time he was sentenced. He murdered Missy. Totally preventable. A miscarriage of justice. A dereliction of judicial duty. So what this bill does is it makes sure that these types of sexual offenses mean that a judge must remand the convicted defendant to custody,” the governor explained.
A press release on the law also notes that it “expands the statutory list of dangerous crimes to include certain computer pornography and child exploitation offenses, ensuring individuals arrested for these crimes are not automatically released at their first appearance.”
DeSantis on Tuesday also called for Florida legislators to muster the courage to impeach the judge in question.
“To my friends in the Florida House of Representatives, I don’t think what you’ve done is enough,” he stated. “You have the power, and you have sufficient numbers in your chamber, to impeach this judge, Tiffany Baker-Carper.
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