On Monday, Gov. DeSantis signed the first death warrant of 2024. This warrant — which comes nine months after the state completed its last execution on Oct. 3, 2023, ending a slew of six executions — shows the randomness of death sentences in Florida. As Justice Stephen Breyer (joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg) wrote in 2015 in Glossip v. Gross, for a defendant to receive a death sentence and “to find it implemented, is the equivalent of being struck by lightning.”
Florida’s 2023 string of executions seemed to be connected to DeSantis’ presidential bid and “tough on crime” platform. Likewise, the hiatus in executions seemed to coincide with DeSantis dropping out of the presidential race. Cole’s execution, if completed, will be the ninth during the DeSantis administration.
We will likely never know why DeSantis signed this warrant now. The process by which governors choose a prisoner for execution is shrouded with secrecy. The timing of a warrant is likewise unexplained. Florida governors are given absolute discretion on when to sign a death warrant and for who.
Yesterday’s warrant scheduled Loran Cole’s execution for Aug. 29, 2024 — almost a year after the state’s last execution. Cole was sentenced to death in 1995 for crimes that occurred in Marion County in 1994. His sentence became final in 1998. Cole is one of 280 people currently on Florida’s death row.
Even after three decades on death row, the warrant came without any warning to Cole or his attorneys. Now, Cole, Cole’s attorneys and the state’s attorneys have 30 days to litigate Cole’s final claims before his scheduled execution — starting in the trial court and proceeding all the way through the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Florida Supreme Court’s scheduling order for warrant litigation, issued shortly after DeSantis released the warrant yesterday, shows this expedited time frame started as soon as the warrant was issued without any notice to Cole or his attorneys. Under the order, the parties have until Friday, Aug. 9, to complete litigation in the trial court. Some claims that Cole could raise in the trial court could not have been raised until the warrant was issued.
After litigation in the trial court is complete, Cole and his attorneys then have until Wednesday, Aug. 14, at 9 a.m. — just two business days after the end of trial court litigation — to file their initial brief in the Florida Supreme Court, raising Cole’s final claims in an attempt to spare his life. The State then has until Friday, Aug. 16, at 3 p.m. to file its answer brief.
Cole and his attorneys then get the weekend to prepare their reply brief, which is due at 11 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 19. When the Court will issue its decision is unclear. Once the Court does so, the parties have until the scheduled execution time to litigate any final claims at the U.S. Supreme Court. Of course, the courts also operate within the same expedited schedule to issue their decisions.
Not all states use this random process under executive discretion. Other states’ processes involve written requests for execution that are submitted to the courts for review and approval. Now that lightning has struck Florida’s death row in 2024, the state joins six others in the nation that have either completed an execution this year or have one scheduled.
Melanie Kalmanson, a member of the Florida Bar since 2016, clerked for Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara J. Pariente in 2016-19. She currently serves on the steering committee for the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty Representation Project and writes the blog, “Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty.”
