Juries in Florida will be able to recommend the death penalty for capital crimes on less than unanimous votes. Under a newly passed law, juries, by an 8-4 vote, can recommend the death penalty. A unanimous vote is no longer required. This is a welcome development.

The catalyst for the less-than-unanimous recommendation law was the decision by three jurors among 12 not to recommend to the presiding judge the death penalty in the Parkland school shooting case. That case centered on the atrocity in which Nikolas Cruz shot dead 17 people and wounded 17 others. The people of the state of Florida were outraged by the decision by the three jurors not to recommend the death penalty.

To be clear, the new less-than-unanimous vote only applies to the punishment stage, and the judge in a case still has the final say.

The United States Supreme Court in Ramos v. Louisiana said that the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, the right to a jury trial, requires a unanimous verdict to convict. But at the sentencing stage of a capital case, the Constitution does not require a unanimous vote. The U.S. Supreme Court indicated in Gardner v Florida that the full panoply of constitutional guarantees does not apply at the sentencing stage of a capital crime case. Florida is not alone in allowing a non-unanimous vote regarding sentencing. Alabama also allows a less-than-unanimous vote for the death sentence. Top line: the Florida non-unanimous vote for sentencing is constitutional.

The new Florida law is also good policy. For a start, it is democratic. The Florida legislature is responding to the will of the people. And the new law is consistent with the views of the majority of Americans. Consistently, more than 50% of voters support the death penalty.

In addition, violent crime is a parasite infecting American society. The rate of homicides in the U.S. is six to seven times higher than the homicide rates of other wealthy countries. Importantly, homicides are almost non-existent in Japan and Singapore, two countries that do not hesitate to impose capital punishment.

The data from Singapore suggest that imposing the death penalty for heinous crimes deters future violent crimes. Progressives argue that poverty drives violent crime. That assertion is a canard. For the non-mentally ill, poverty has largely been eradicated in the U.S.

Instead, violent crime is a function of culture. The correlation between violent crime and the destruction of the natural family unit: father, mother, and children are high. Fix families, and the country will fix violent crime . Family will be fixed when everyone adopts the dominant culture of reciprocal kindness and the abhorrence of anti-social behavior.

A prime duty of the state is to protect its citizens from crime, particularly violent crime. Today government is failing that duty. Florida is redressing the scales of justice in favor of the polity and not criminals. Richard Hanania, President of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, is right — serial criminals, particularly violent criminals, are parasites. Such parasites should be "warehoused" in prison or executed if convicted of a capital crime where a majority of jurors vote for the death penalty.

Americans should not have to live in fear of violent crime.

James Rogan is a former U.S. foreign service officer who later worked in finance and law for 30 years. He writes a daily note  on finance and the economy, politics, sociology, and criminal justice.