Ron DeSantis' new death-penalty law is an open invitation for the Supreme Court to overturn limits on executions nationwide

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law expanding the death penalty to include child rapists.
• It defies a 2008 Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the death penalty in crimes where the victim didn't die.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is defying the Supreme Court with a new law expanding the death penalty to child rapists — and said the law sets up a way to allow the conservative-leaning court to overturn limits on executions across the US.

On Monday, DeSantis signed three Florida House bills into law, including one that expands the death penalty to include child rapists.

The legislation allows for executions for capital sexual battery, defining the crime as when "a person 18 years of age or older" commits or attempts to commit "sexual battery" upon "a person less than 12 years of age."

"In Florida, we believe it's only appropriate that the worst of the worst crimes deserve the worst of the worst punishment," DeSantis said Monday.

HB 1297 directly defies Kennedy v. Louisiana, a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited the death penalty for crimes like rape, where the victim didn't die.

DeSantis confirmed on Monday that the law is a direct challenge to Kennedy v. Louisiana and criticized the 2008 court's ruling.

"We think that that decision was wrong," the governor said. "This bill sets up a procedure to be able to challenge that precedent."

DeSantis' office also confirmed he's "prepared to take this law all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule judicial precedents which have unjustly shielded child rapists from the death penalty and denied victims and their loved ones the opportunity to pursue ultimate justice against these most heinous criminals."

It's not the first time DeSantis has focused on expanding the death penalty in Florida. In late April, he signed a law that lets juries recommend the death penalty without being unanimous.