A notable 2023 year in review in two major death penalty states

Florida and Texas have notable histories, both past and moden, in the application of the death penalty.  The year 2023 added to those histories in various ways, as these two recent year-in-review press pieces detail:

From Florida, "Florida’s death penalty faced major change in 2023, caused national impact: After years without executions, Florida carried out six this year — along with laws expanding the state’s death penalty."  An excerpt:

Florida is one of five states that regularly uses the death penalty — and in 2023 the state stood out for its efforts to increase and expand the use of capital punishment. The state’s moves to resume executions after three years, to lower the bar for juries to recommend death sentences and to expand the crimes eligible for death put Florida at the forefront of the issue nationally....

In the spring, lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis changed state law so juries don’t have to be unanimous to recommend the death penalty. The new minimum is a vote of 8-4 for death. Lawmakers also passed a bill making child sex abuse offenses eligible for the death penalty, a change that contradicts U.S. and Florida Supreme Court precedent. Prosecutors in Florida’s 5th Judicial Circuit this month filed the first such charges, and DeSantis has said they have his “full support.”

From Texas, "Texas executions remained low as 8 prison inmates put to death, 2 from Houston area, in 2023."  An excerpt:

Texas' death row population is at its lowest level in decades and fewer defendants condemned to die by Harris County juries are being executed or sent to death row. 

The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said in its annual report that 2023 marked the smallest death row population in more than 38 years, with a third of those coming from Harris County convictions.  As of December, 67 inmates from Harris County remain on death row, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records.

The state put to deaths eight people this year — two of whom were from the Houston area. The number of executions was higher than during the pandemic, but lower than the years prior, according to state records.