Legislative session's early end dooms bills.

After the Senate declined to back off from its position that an alternative to Medicaid expansion should be included in the state budget, House Speaker Steve Cristafulli adjourned his chamber sine die on April 28, three days before the scheduled end of the session on May 1.

Many bills became casualties of the House's move to abruptly end the session, including the following:

* HB 139 and SB 664 would have removed Florida as an outlier state and required jurors to be unanimous when voting for the advisory sentence of death in capital cases.

Currently, Florida, Alabama, and Delaware are the only three of 31 death penally states requiring jury participation that do not require a unanimous recommendation for death. In Alabama, a 10-2 vote is required, whereas in Florida, only a majority 7-5 vote is required. ABA President William Hubbard supported SB 664, sponsored by Sen. Thad Altman, R-Cape Canaveral, and HB 139, sponsored by Rep. Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, and Rep. Clovis Watson, Jr., D-Gainesville. The Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association was against the bills, saying the Legislature should not tamper with existing law when it is known the law is going to be before the U.S. Supreme Court again. The Florida Bar has no position on the legislation.

* Bills aimed at reducing Florida prosecutors' wide discretion in charging children as adults and making the court's imposition of adult sanctions discretionary, not mandatory, made it out of committees, but died in appropriations. HB 78 was co-sponsored by Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Sunrise, Rep. Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota, and Rep. Clovis Watson, "D-Gainesville. SB 1082 was sponsored by Sen. Thad Altman, R-Cape Canaveral, Sen. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, and Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville. The James Madison Institute threw its support behind the bills, calling it both an important social issue and an economic issue because direct filing juveniles to adult prison increases the possibility of recidivism with more severe and violent crime. The Bar's Legal Needs of Children Committee also supported the proposal.

* A bill aimed to curtail public records shakedowns, SB 224, sponsored by Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, passed unanimously out of the Senate Committee on Fiscal Policy March 26 and was rolled over to third reading on the Senate floor April 1. Companion bill HB 163, filed by Rep. Halsey Beshears, R-Monticello, successfully passed out of House State Affairs, Government Operations Appropriations...