News - August 2016 RSS Feed

A study was released this week by Harvard Law School's Fair Punishment Project, reporting that less than one percent of all U.S. counties handed down five or more death sentences between 2010-2015. While the U.S. is generally moving away from its use of the death penalty, four of the sixteen national outlier counties are in the state of Florida (Duval, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, and Pinellas).

The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops has filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Florida’s HB 633. The bill, which provides for a 24-hour reflection period prior to an abortion, became law in 2015 and was immediately challenged in the courts. In response to claims of six Florida bioethicists, the brief provides a fuller picture of the law’s benefits from a bioethical perspective.

To assist voters prior to casting their August 30 primary election ballots, the FCCB has released parish bulletin inserts and candidate responses to the Candidate Questionnaire Project (CQP). Candidates were asked whether they support or oppose eight proposals that lawmakers may have the opportunity to act on in the coming term.