Newly appointed Hillsborough State Attorney Susan Lopez reversed the decision by her DeSantis-sacked predecessor, Andrew Warren, not to pursue the death penalty against an alleged teacher slayer in one of her first high-profile moves since taking office.
Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appointed Lopez to take the reins after suspending Warren for his stated refusal to enforce Florida’s law banning abortion after 15 weeks. Lopez’s office will now pursue the death penalty for Matthew Terry, who is accused of murdering third grade teacher Kay Baker.
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Warren’s office opted not to pursue the death penalty against Terry due to Baker’s family wishes, he confirmed to the Tampa Bay Times. Prosecutors for Hillsborough filed the notice of intent to pursue the death penalty in Florida court last Friday — the day of the deadline for that filing.
Terry had been arraigned on June 21 for the alleged murder of Baker, who had been found stabbed to death near her home, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Terry was her boyfriend at the time, according to authorities. In 2017, he was convicted in the stabbing of his ex-girlfriend in Michigan. Baker was found dead by a neighbor after she went out with Terry to a bar earlier that day, per authorities.
Public defender Julianne Holt relayed to Terry that Warren said his office would not pursue the death penalty and then had to notify him about the reversal, per the news outlet. Warren had pursued the death penalty sparingly since assuming office in 2017, with five active death penalty cases as of last week, according to the report.
DeSantis suspended Warren in a hotly teased special announcement last Thursday, citing a letter Warren signed arguing that Florida’s 15-week abortion ban was unconstitutional and insisting he wouldn’t enforce it. A judge subsequently ruled the law was unconstitutional, though that decision was stayed by another court, and litigation over the law is still pending.
The governor argued that Warren’s signature of that letter indicated he would not uphold state law and cited Article IV, Section 7 of the Florida Constitution, which details disqualification provisions for elected state officials, as a rationale for suspending him.
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Warren, who had been reelected to the post in 2020, swiped back at DeSantis, saying his office spurned the state’s abortion law since he signed the letter. He accused DeSantis of abusing his power and vowed to fight the suspension.
“It’s not even talking about things that I’ve done in the office — it’s talking about things that I may do in the future for a law that doesn’t even exist yet. I mean, this is out of, like, 1984 Orwellian thought police,” Warren told CNN. “The governor is just grasping at straws here.”
