Grady Judd criticizes Florida's death row delays
Florida's sheriff Grady Judd is pushing for far faster executions, framing decades-long death row waits as a failure of past state leaders — good news for supporters of the death penalty, alarming for those worried about wrongful convictions.
- Judd says inmates sitting on death row for 20 to 25 years is indefensible and the process should take five to eight years.
- The argument is that arrest, conviction, two or three appeals, and execution can all fit inside that window.
- Judd draws a line between bar-fight killings and premeditated, first-degree murder, saying only the latter is at issue here.
- Governor DeSantis gets credit for speeding up executions, while earlier politicians get the blame for the backlog.
- The open question raised: why other states are not moving at the same pace.
Outlook: Expect Florida to keep signing death warrants at a fast clip, with pressure building on other states to follow.