Possible Florida test case for new capital child rape statute now in the works
Almost eight months ago, I asked in this post: “With new Florida law authorizing death penalty for child rape, how might SCOTUS get to reconsider Kennedy?” In that post, I wondered aloud “about the facts of any ‘Kennedy test case’, [and] how long it might take to get to SCOTUS.” As reported in this recent press peice, we now have a a possible test case getting started:
In a first for the state of Florida, prosecutors in the Sunshine State will be pursuing capital punishment against a man accused of raping a child where no death occurred under a new law that runs counter to the U.S. Supreme Court’s current Eight and Fourteenth Amendment precedent.
The Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Office on Thursday filed court documents stating its intent to seek the death penalty against 36-year-old Joseph Andrew Giampa, who was indicted by a grand jury on six counts of sexual battery on a child under age 12 and three counts of promoting a sexual performance of a child. According to a news release from the state attorney’s office, prosecutors want to put Giampa to death due to “the severity of the crime and its impact on the community.”
The notice filed in Lake County Circuit Court lists numerous aggravating factors, which prosecutors say implore the state to seek the death penalty. Such factors include that the crime was committed for “pecuniary gain,” it was “especially heinous,” the victim was “particularly vulnerable,” and Giampa had previously been convicted of a violent felony….
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, authorities responded on Nov. 2 to Giampa’s home about a possible sexual battery. Once there, deputies detained Giampa. In his camper, deputies said there was a computer with a video showing an adult sexually assaulting a child under 12. After the sexual assault, the assailant who was recording the attack “set the camera down” and then “walked in front of the camera.” Authorities said the adult male in the recording was Giampa. Giampa then sexually assaulted the juvenile several more times as the video continued before exiting the room as “the juvenile victim begins cleaning up in view of the camera.”
The case is certain to pose constitutional challenges as the legislation adopted and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year is patently contra to the Supreme Court’s 2008 case Kennedy v. Louisiana, which prohibits the death penalty as punishment “where no life was taken in the commission of the crime.”…
Of the four justices who dissented — Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas — three are still on the court, while all five of those who voted in the majority have been replaced, predominantly by justices whose overall judicial ideology is far more right-leaning.
The legislation’s text explicitly states that the high court’s earlier rulings on death penalty prohibitions were “wrongly decided and that such cases are an egregious infringement of the states’ power to punish the most heinous of crimes.”
DeSantis already released a statement indicating his intent to take the case up with the justices. “Today, the State’s Attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit announced that they will seek the death penalty in a case of sexual battery against a child under age 12,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “It will be the first case to challenge SCOTUS (U.S. Supreme Court) since I signed legislation to make pedophiles eligible for the death penalty. The State’s Attorney has my full support.”
Because I do not know the intricacies of Florida criminal procedure, I do not know if there are (appealable) means for the defendant here to seek some kind of dismissal/striking of the capital aspect of these charges. I noted in my prior post that the Florida death penalty law, House Bill 1297, states expressly that “a sentence of death shall be imposed under this section notwithstanding existing case law which holds such a sentence is unconstitutional under the Florida Constitution and the United States Constitution.” But is it really proper for a state judge to entertain and allow criminal charges to move forward contrary to on-point state and federal constitutional law? (Imagine if New York passed a statute, hoping SCOTUS might change its approach to the Second Amendment since Bruen is proving problematic, that ordered state courts to enforce a problematic gun law “notwithstanding existing case law.”)
Whatever the possible procedures at an early stage of Florida’s capital litigation, I wonder if the defendant here may be eager to seek to plea given what sounds like damning evidence of guilty. Indisputably guilty murderers who face capital charges often offer to plead guilty to avoid a possible death sentence, but a prosecutor must be willing to make such a plea deal. It will be interesting to see if this local Florida prosecutor will want to persistently pursue this capital charge which is certain to come with years and years of litigation.
Prior related post: