en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decapitation
3 corrections found
In July 2025, Florida enacted legislation
Florida did not enact this bill in July 2025. HB 903 was approved on May 22, 2025; July 1, 2025 was the law’s effective date.
Full reasoning
Florida's 2025 corrections bill, CS/CS/HB 903, is the legislation being referenced here. The Florida Senate's bill page shows the bill was approved by Governor Ron DeSantis on May 22, 2025 and became Chapter No. 2025-81 on May 23, 2025. The same page lists an effective date of July 1, 2025.
So July 2025 was when the law took effect, not when it was enacted/approved. Saying Florida "enacted" it in July is therefore incorrect.
2 sources
- House Bill 903 (2025) - The Florida Senate
Effective Date: 7/1/2025 ... 5/22/2025 • Approved by Governor ... 5/23/2025 • Chapter No. 2025-81
- 2025 Bill Summaries - The Florida Senate
If approved by the Governor, or allowed to become law without the Governor's signature, these provisions take effect July 1, 2025.
which includes beheading.
Florida’s 2025 statute does not specifically authorize beheading. It keeps lethal injection and elective electrocution, and adds only a contingent fallback to a method “not deemed unconstitutional.”
Full reasoning
The article overstates what Florida law actually says.
Florida Statute § 922.105 says a death sentence is carried out by lethal injection, unless the prisoner elects electrocution. It then provides a fallback only if current methods are ruled unconstitutional or lethal-injection chemicals become unavailable/impractical: in that contingency, executions may proceed by "a method not deemed unconstitutional."
The statute does not name beheading anywhere. Likewise, the Florida Senate's own bill summary describes the change only as authorizing execution by "a method not deemed unconstitutional" under specified circumstances. A secondary summary of authorized methods by state from the Death Penalty Information Center describes Florida the same way and does not list beheading as an authorized Florida method.
Because the law does not expressly include beheading, presenting beheading as one of the methods the statute itself "includes" is inaccurate. At most, that is a speculative inference some commentators have drawn from the catch-all phrase, not what the enacted text specifically authorizes.
3 sources
- Chapter 922 Section 105 - 2025 Florida Statutes - The Florida Senate
A death sentence shall be executed by lethal injection, unless the person sentenced to death affirmatively elects to be executed by electrocution... all persons sentenced to death for a capital crime shall be executed by a method not deemed unconstitutional.
- 2025 Bill Summaries - The Florida Senate
Authorizes a death sentence to be executed by a method not deemed unconstitutional if the acquisition of chemicals necessary for lethal injection becomes impossible or impractical.
- Authorized Methods by State | Death Penalty Information Center
Florida ... Lethal injection will be administered unless the prisoner affirmatively chooses electrocution ... If lethal injection or electrocution is found to be unconstitutional, then any constitutional method will be administered.
"any execution method not explicitly deemed unconstitutional,"
This is not the wording of the Florida statute. The law says executions may proceed by “a method not deemed unconstitutional” under certain contingencies.
Full reasoning
The post places this phrase in quotation marks as if it were the language of Florida's 2025 law, but that is not what the statute says.
Florida Statute § 922.105(3) provides that, if lethal injection or electrocution is ruled unconstitutional, or if lethal-injection chemicals become impossible or impractical to obtain, condemned prisoners "shall be executed by a method not deemed unconstitutional." The Florida Senate's own bill summary uses the same wording.
The post's quoted wording adds terms that are not in the law, including "any execution method" and "explicitly". That is a misquotation of the statute.
2 sources
- Chapter 922 Section 105 - 2025 Florida Statutes - The Florida Senate
... all persons sentenced to death for a capital crime shall be executed by a method not deemed unconstitutional.
- 2025 Bill Summaries - The Florida Senate
Authorizes a death sentence to be executed by a method not deemed unconstitutional if the acquisition of chemicals necessary for lethal injection becomes impossible or impractical.