Gillum's stance under question by Orange County family
The family of a murdered Orange County teen said they want to know more details about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum's stance on the death penalty.
Gillum told WFOR-TV in August that he wants to temporarily suspend the death penalty in Florida if he's elected governor.
"Until we can come up some answers as to why it is that there seems to be in this state the racial bias when it comes to the application on the death penalty," he told the station.
"These are heinous crimes," Rafael Zaldivar said in response.
Zaldivar's 19-year-old son Alex was shot and killed in Orange County in 2012 by Bessman Okafor.
Okafor is now being resentenced after a Supreme Court decision requiring all death penalty cases to have a unanimous jury verdict.
Zaldivar said he doesn't want that possibility taken away.
"That's going to be a problem with not only for my son's case, Bessman Okafor, but we have the Markeith Loyd case and 26 other cases," he said.
Many of those cases were taken away from State Attorney Aramis Ayala by Gov. Rick Scott after she announced last year that she would not seek the death penalty in any case.
Since then, Ayala has made changes.
She said she will now consider whether the death penalty is appropriate in some cases using a panel of colleagues as the decision-makers.
She has also come out supporting Gillum in his bid for governor.
Gillum said he disagrees with Ayala on some topics, and he doesn't call himself a "death penalty opponent."
He said he just wants it to be carried out fairly.
"Justice delayed is not justice denied," he told WFOR. "Justice will be had here."
"I'm asking you, Mr. Gillum, personal question to you," Zaldivar said. "Are you for it or against it? If you win, are you going to give those cases back to Aramis Ayala? That's what I need to know."
Gillum's campaign staffers did answer that question after News 6 asked them Thursday.
Ayala's office also did not comment.
Gillum's Republican competitor, Ron DeSantis, also did not respond to a request for his stance on the death penalty, although DeSantis has supported legislation that included the death penalty as a sentence.
Source: clickorlando.com, Erik Sandoval, September 20, 2018
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