Florida Could Become the First State to Execute Drug Dealers
Selling fentanyl to someone who dies is now first-degree murder. But how do you prove it? That’s a life-or-death question for Tamas Harris.
KELLY WEILL
10.11.17 9:00 PM ET
Sonny Priest’s friend found him dead in his home in Altamonte Springs, Florida, the week before Christmas 2016. Priest had overdosed on alprazolam, cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl, a medical examiner ruled.
Six months after Priest’s death, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed a law expanding the state’s first-degree murder code to include selling a lethal dose of fentanyl. The law, which only applies to adults, took effect Oct. 1. Priest’s alleged dealer, Tamas Harris, was eight days into adulthood when Priest died. This month, 18-year-old Harris will go to court an accused murderer. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.
Florida law already allowed dealers of drugs like cocaine or heroin to be charged with first-degree murder when their drugs led to fatal overdose. But overdose rates have skyrocketed in the state with the proliferation of fentanyl, a drug up to 50 times more powerful than heroin. Fentanyl and heroin are sometimes combined without the buyer or distributor’s knowledge, creating a cocktail of indeterminate strength.
“Most deaths we’ve seen since the rise of fentanyl in Florida have been a mixture of heroin and fentanyl,” said Greg Newburn, Florida’s state policy director for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a sentencing reform group.
Florida’s new law doesn’t care whether or not dealers know their drugs are laced with fentanyl. As long as a fatal mixture contained any amount of fentanyl, the dealer can be charged with first-degree murder, a charge for which “the only two sentences available are life without parole and the death penalty,” Newburn said.
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/florida-could-become-the-first-state-to-execute-drug-dealers
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