Florida’s high court recently upheld Gov. Ron DeSantis’s suspension of an elected prosecutor — one of numerous instances around the country where reformist prosecutors have been targeted by other branches of government who oppose their policies. The prosecutors ran promising to use the discretion of their office in order to help reduce an overreliance on overly punitive prosecutorial practices that seek excessive and unnecessary custodial sentences.
In August 2023, DeSantis, a Republican, issued an executive order suspending Democratic prosecutor Monique Worrell, who was elected in 2020 with 66 percent of the vote to represent the state’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, which serves Orange and Osceola counties, home to Orlando. DeSantis accused Worrell of “neglect of duty” and “incompetence” and relied on a provision of the Florida Constitution that permits the governor to suspend “any state officer not subject to impeachment” on such grounds.
Specifically, DeSantis’s order alleged that Worrell had neglected her prosecutorial duties by declining to seek mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking and gun crimes. The order cited statistics indicating that Worrell had obtained mandatory minimum sentences in just 3 of 96 drug trafficking cases and 1 of 58 cases of robbery with a firearm referred to her office by the Osceola County sheriff. DeSantis also alleged that Worrell did not prioritize incarceration for juvenile offenders, pedophiles, and others.
At the time of the suspension, Worrell was the only Black woman serving as a state attorney in Florida. The state has 20 “state attorneys,” or elected prosecutors with a state constitutional duty to represent the state in cases arising out of their respective circuits.
