Opinion: A minimum age for execution

In a rare moment of enlightenment, the Florida House of Representatives tentatively voted last week to exempt all juveniles from the death penalty. Those who said it was too good to be true were right. In a monumental double-cross, the House leadership pulled the bill from the floor Tuesday to keep it from passing.

In the same orchestrated sequence, the House approved a constitutional amendment to restrict the Florida Supreme Court's discretion in the matter by forbidding only that punishment which is both cruel and unusual, the federal terminology. The practical result: Defendants as young as 16 would face capital punishment again.

This was a disgrace, and how some members frothed on the floor was disgusting. Would the amendment overrule the court's 1999 Brennan decision setting 17 as the minimum age? "I sure hope so," said Rep. Gaston I. Cantens, R-Miami, a former prosecutor.

And so it went. The order of the day was to "send a message to the people across the street," as Rep. Johnny B. Byrd Jr., R-Plant City, put it.

The House has been spoiling for revenge since the court threw out a similar amendment, after its approval by voters in 1998, on grounds that the ballot issue was worded deceptively. The amendment was unnecessary then, and it is unnecessary now. Given the consequence to 16-year-olds, it is also barbaric and hugely embarrassing to Florida's world image.

There were vague promises Tuesday to set 17 as the minimum age if such a bill comes from the Senate. That, of course, is the status quo, which the Senate could -- and should -- honorably preserve simply by doing nothing.

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