TAMPA, Fla — For the first time in four years, Florida will uphold the death penalty. Donald Dillbeck was executed by lethal injection for murder Thursday.
Restarting executions has prompted debate from people on both sides of the issue.
Tony Montalto, whose daughter, Gina, was killed in the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Highschool in 2018, said the death penalty equals justice.
"She was 14. She was a freshman, innocently sitting in her school, and she was murdered there along with 13 of her classmates and three of her teachers. The perpetrator who committed that act, sadly, did not get the death penalty," Montalto explained.
Since 2017, a jury is required to unanimously recommend execution before a judge imposes the death sentence. The gunman accused in the Parkland shooting did not receive a unanimous decision. Therefore, he was sentenced to life in prison.
"I was angry. I felt that the justice system failed my family... Someone who made the conscious decision to pull the trigger 139 individual times, murdering innocent students, teachers, people that were daughters, sons, fathers, and spouses. Someone who chooses to commit that act, especially so many times, deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law," Montalto added.
Montalto said in his opinion, the death penalty is needed for people who commit heinous crimes.
But, John Stewart, an anti-death penalty advocate, said he's seen Florida get it wrong too many times to justify capital punishment.
"Florida leads the nation in releasing innocent people from death row. For every 99 people we have executed in Florida, Florida has had to release 30 men, innocent men, that they tried to kill. Those aren't good odds. You would not fly in an airline with those kinds of odds," Stewart said.
Stewart said he wants to abolish the death penalty.
"I've been active opposing the death penalty in Florida for years, and I've had the good fortune to meet some of the 30 men that Florida has released, innocent men they tried to kill... All the death penalty does is extend the death. It extends it. It creates a new round of suffering, grieving friends and relatives. We don't need that," Stewart added.
But Montalto told ABC Action News he feels differently.
"I think that there are a multitude of people with a multitude of reasons that they are against the death penalty. And I will just say while it's theoretical to them, it's factual to me and my family. I can say that once my daughter was murdered, I knew that the perpetrator needed to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. And that is what we have in Florida is the death penalty,"
