In historic move, Florida seeks death penalty for man charged with sexually abusing child

A Florida prosecutor is using a new state law to seek the death penalty for a man charged with sexually abusing a child on video.

It marks the first time Florida prosecutors will seek capital punishment for a charge other than murder in modern times, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

Joseph Andrew Giampa, who was arrested in November, is charged with six counts of sexual battery of a person under twelve years of age, and three counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child, said a press release from the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office.

Giampa, 36, a resident of Leesburg, a city in Lake County about 45 miles northwest of Orlando, was allegedly depicted on video sexually abusing a young boy.

“Given the severity of the crime and its impact on the community, the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office has filed a notice that it intends to seek the death penalty pursuant to Florida Statutes,” said the office’s news release Thursday.

U.S. Supreme Court rulings bar the death penalty for sexual assault and other non-homicide crimes.

A 2008 case, Kennedy v. Louisiana, said the death penalty in such cases violates the Eighth Amendment provision against cruel and unusual punishment.

“When the law punishes by death, it risks its own sudden descent into brutality, transgressing the constitutional commitment to decency and restraint,” the majority justices ruled in that case.

DeSantis has called the Kennedy decision, approved by a 5-3 court, an “egregious infringement of the states’ power,” and has also said he believes the current Supreme Court will uphold Florida’s law.

Giampa’s trial will “be the first case to challenge SCOTUS since I signed legislation to make pedophiles eligible for the death penalty,” DeSantis said in a statement on Facebook. “The State’s Attorney has my full support.”

Before Kennedy vs. Louisiana, six states allowed death sentences for rape, including Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Louisiana, Montana and Georgia.