TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Lawmakers in Tallahassee started their legislative day early. Meetings started Thursday at 9 a.m. and they debated each of the six bills proposed before casting a final vote.

What You Need To Know

  •  Lawmakers started deliberations early Thursday

  •  One bill that's currently under consideration would require the death penalty in some cases

  •  All bills under consideration are expected to pass by as early as Thursday evening

One bill, HB 3C, was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. That proposal would require the death penalty against undocumented migrants for certain crimes.

That provision was previously passed by lawmakers in the last special session. That bill was never sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for approval. Instead, lawmakers started a new special session, and broke the proposals down into six bills.

The bill in short stipulates that if an undocumented migrant is convicted of murder or rape — it’s an automatic capital offense.

That requirement would be a major departure from current law, which typically allows juries to make sentencing recommendations.

“If you don’t want to face the death penalty for committing one of these heinous crimes, number one, don’t do them. And number two, don’t be in a place where you’re not supposed to be,” State Sen. Randy Fine of Melbourne said.

Other lawmakers are cautious of the proposal, saying that the legal system, “Must operate without bias.”

“The legal system must operate without bias. Yet we know that capital sentencing has historically been riddled with disparities, particularly for marginalized communities,” State Sen. Barbara Sharief said.

This bill is likely to come under legal fire as the U.S. Supreme court has ruled that mandatory death sentences are unconstitutional in Woodson v. North Carolina in 1976.