What if I told you that, in the state of Florida, practically speaking, doctors can legally get away with killing your loved ones if they fall under a few specific categories? If the victim is over the age of 25, has no children under the age of 25, and is unmarried or widowed, they fall into those categories, and Florida law effectively views their lives as worthless. This is an introduction to Florida’s “Free Kill” Law.

____________________________________________________________________________ I. The Impact

When a physician’s malpractice causes a patient’s death, civil justice is about far more than money. In the most horrific cases, the word “malpractice” barely captures the reckless, negligent, or even deliberate conduct involved. A lawsuit can force facts into the open through discovery, place witnesses under oath, expose dangerous physicians and the institutions that protect them, and provide accountability when criminal or administrative systems fail to act.

Monetary damages are part of that process, not because grieving families are greedy, but because civil courts use them to recognize harm, punish egregious conduct, and provide a remedy where other systems have failed. However, in Florida, seeking civil justice in wrongful death medical negligence cases is not possible for certain families.

Florida Statute 768.21(8), commonly known as the Free Kill law, makes it realistically impossible for families to obtain civil justice when the victim is a 25-year-old woman at the beginning of her career, unmarried and without children. A 50-year-old Catholic priest or nun, unmarried and without children because of religious vows of celibacy. An 80-year-old widower with adult children, all of whom are over the age of twenty-five. That last one was my grandfather, Stefan Suto.

In December 2021, my grandfather and the rest of the family were suffering from a flu-like illness that was not COVID-19. A Georgia-licensed physician who was not licensed in Tennessee came to the family’s home there and administered high doses of IV and nebulized hydrogen peroxide to him, an idea that was conceived by the doctor.

Without knowing he had just been poisoned and because the resulting symptoms appeared to be a worsening of his illness, the family, with his agreement, later took him to the care of two licensed Florida physicians. Those physicians continued administering IV hydrogen peroxide while adding ozonated saline and direct ozone gas. He initially arrived at a clinic; however, most of my grandfather’s care took place inside a hotel room.

One physician performed a non-cross-matched blood transfusion using blood taken from their own body and placed into an IV bag. He was also enrolled in hospice without valid consent through an unauthorized signature. Two days after the transfusion, he was dead. No physician, staff member, or hospice employee reported his death to authorities or the medical examiner.

His body was sent directly to a funeral home and buried a week later. One physician’s records omitted what had been administered to him, while a fraudulent death certificate listed natural causes. Dr. Scott Hof, the physician named as having certified the death, later swore under oath that he had neither signed the certificate nor participated in my grandfather’s care.

After local authorities refused to properly investigate, our family obtained a private forensic autopsy from Dr. Daniel Schultz, a forensic pathologist with more than 35 years of experience. He concluded that the substances administered by the three physicians caused hemolytic anemia, multisystem organ failure, and my grandfather’s death. He ruled out natural causes and classified the death as a homicide. Many people who hear this story point out that my grandfather’s case sounds criminal.

I will return to that later because Florida’s free-kill law has an impact on this as well. Since physicians caused his death, Florida civil law treated the case primarily as medical malpractice. Once our family understood what had happened, my mother immediately sought to sue all three physicians. Although I could not personally bring the claim as Stefan’s grandson, I strongly supported her right to do so.

My grandfather was my primary caretaker and largely raised me alongside my mother. We successfully sued the physician who was unlicensed in Tennessee and won. But when we attempted to pursue the two Florida physicians, we encountered Florida’s free-kill law. Over four months, my family and a physician friend contacted around twenty attorneys before finally learning why none could take the case.

It was a horrific realization that Florida law treated my grandfather’s life as having no value. His lack of Florida residency didn’t matter; the law applies to anyone who dies in the state at the hands of a physician. We were denied the ability to bring the case into court, depose the doctors, force discovery, and make them answer for their actions. Attorneys didn’t decline the case because it lacked merit but because the law made the case practically impossible to bring.

More information about my grandfather’s case can be found in a WFLA 8 TV news report in the works cited section at the end of this article. However, there is another disturbing case that is worth mentioning, and unfortunately, the first example I cited earlier of the kinds of individuals this law affects is also a true story.

“She had been 25 for two and a half months when she was killed,” says Cindy Jenkins, founder of the Healthcare Accountability Initiative, in an interview with Liberty Sentinel’s Alex Newman when speaking of her daughter Taylor. In March 2023, Taylor Jenkins was admitted to an Orlando-area ICU after being rear-ended in an intersection.

When Cindy arrived at the hospital, staff told her that Taylor was suffering from subdural hematomas, or bleeding in the brain. However, bizarre behavior from the staff involved in Taylor’s care, along with their refusal to promptly obtain additional imaging or take her to surgery, left Cindy feeling uneasy. Her concerns only grew when doctors and nurses refused to provide her with Taylor’s medical records.

Attempting to exercise her rights under Florida law, Cindy frantically tried to have her daughter transferred to another hospital but was unsuccessful. Over the course of fifteen hours, Taylor showed persistent signs of internal bleeding that were not adequately investigated or treated. Her initial CT scan was limited by motion but still showed fluid in her abdomen. She was also documented as a bleeding risk, yet no prompt follow-up investigation was performed. When repeat imaging finally confirmed that her abdominal cavity was filled with blood from a torn artery, approximately seven more hours passed before she was taken to emergency surgery.

After Taylor’s death, Cindy obtained a private autopsy that revealed a shocking truth: her daughter had never suffered any subdural hematomas. The only damage to Taylor’s brain was hypoxia caused by the uncontrolled abdominal bleeding, which doctors and hospital staff were seemingly aware of but did nothing to stop.

Taylor was about to get engaged before her death, but because she was 25 and not yet married, Cindy quickly learned that under Florida law, there was no path to justice for her daughter. “When I started reaching out for help… I even reached out to national law firms, and they said, ‘How old was the victim?’ Twenty-five. Was she married? No. Did she have children? No. And then they let you know that they cannot help you because of this law,” Ms. Jenkins testifies.

____________________________________________________________________________ II. The Arguments

The primary supporters of Florida’s Free Kill law include hospitals, malpractice insurers, and lobbying groups such as the Florida Medical Association, Florida Hospital Association, and Florida Justice Reform Institute. One argument in its defense relies on the statute’s wording. Florida Statute 768.21(8) bars only noneconomic damages, including pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of consortium. Supporters therefore argue that families can still sue for economic damages such as medical bills, funeral expenses, and autopsy costs.

That argument collapses in practice. Medical malpractice cases are notoriously among the most expensive lawsuits to bring, and the limited economic damages available in Free Kill cases are always too small to justify the cost. Florida’s presuit requirements create another major financial barrier. “In Florida, a very expensive pre-suit investigation is required before a medical malpractice claim can even be filed with the court system. Trial attorneys are required to carry this expense that easily runs $100,000 or more,” Ms. Jenkins explains.

As a result, the right to sue technically exists on paper. However, when noneconomic damages are barred and litigation costs far exceed the amount recoverable, families have no realistic way to bring a case. Florida’s presuit requirements also disprove another argument for keeping the Free Kill law: that repeal would unleash frivolous lawsuits. In reality, those requirements already filter out any possible claims that lack merit. They require a qualified medical expert to first review the case and confirm that malpractice occurred.

Oftentimes, multiple medical experts may be needed depending on the facts of the case. “There is no such thing as a frivolous medical malpractice lawsuit in the state of Florida,” Ms. Jenkins states. When corporate lobbyists talk about protecting physicians from frivolous lawsuits, the reality is they are only defending them from serious and credible lawsuits that already have a high barrier to simply exist. Good doctors do not need a law that shields deadly negligence or recklessness from civil accountability.

Other common fear-mongering assertions from lobbyists include claims that a repeal of Florida’s Free Kill law would lead to an exodus of doctors and healthcare costs dramatically increasing. To address the latter claim, lobbyists frequently argue that repealing Florida’s Free Kill would effectively expand uncapped damages and increase healthcare costs. The baseline theme for all of these restrictive measures is that they’re done for the good of healthcare that is being somehow attacked by out-of-control lawsuits.

Florida is one of 18 states without noneconomic damage caps in fatal medical malpractice cases after its Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional twice. Additionally, there is no evidence that medical malpractice liability is a major driver of healthcare spending. A 2010 Health Affairs study estimated that the entire medical liability system, including defensive medicine, accounted for only 2.4% of national healthcare spending.

The Congressional Budget Office similarly estimated that broad nationwide tort reform in this field would reduce spending by just 0.5%. Because both figures apply nationally, the financial effect of repealing one Florida law would be smaller still. Florida’s Supreme Court also rejected claims that unrestricted damages were creating a healthcare crisis in McCall v. United States. In this case, the Court described allegations of an insurance crisis threatening healthcare access as “dubious and questionable at the very best.”

Though Florida is the only state in the nation to have the Free Kill law, caps on damages in medical malpractice cases in other states often have the effect of protecting negligent healthcare providers and barring legitimate lawsuits against them. Arguably, some of the most serious and egregious cases are ultimately declined despite their validity due to the cost of multiple expert witnesses needed for a plaintiff to make their case. Florida’s own physician workforce data also contradicts claims of a mass exodus.

The number of physicians continued rising after the state’s caps were struck down, while the latest 2025 workforce report found that only around 3.2% of physicians cited liability exposure and just 0.6% cited malpractice insurance costs as reasons for leaving. Many states such as New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Minnesota have no free kill law or caps on noneconomic damages for medical malpractice.

These states not only have functioning medical services, but they also consistently rank among the highest quality healthcare systems in the US every year. Nuclear verdicts, generally defined as awards exceeding $10 million, are extraordinarily rare and are often reduced after trial. Sourcing from Florida insurance data, even using the highest possible estimate of 69 Florida medical malpractice nuclear verdicts between 2013 and 2022, it would represent only about 0.4% of the roughly 18,000 malpractice claims that resulted in payments to plaintiffs during the same period. Additionally, many supporters of the Free Kill law often claim that the Florida Department of Health already provides sufficient accountability for physicians whose negligence or recklessness leads to a patient’s death. That could not be further from the truth.

____________________________________________________________________________ III. The Administrative Path

Complaints to the Florida Department of Health are confidential, leaving complainants with little role beyond submitting evidence and receiving status updates. Although the Florida Legislature suggests that physician investigations should take about six months, this is only a recommendation. In my grandfather’s case, the two physicians retained attorneys while our family remained largely in the dark for nearly three years.

Overwhelming evidence was provided to the DOH, which included my grandfather’s forensic autopsy report concluding homicide, a secondary forensic review, texts, images, witness testimony, and affidavits. Despite this, they closed the cases on both physicians, stating “no probable cause.” Before disciplinary charges can proceed, complaints must pass through a probable cause panel, typically consisting of two physicians and a consumer member.

Over the past decade, the Florida DOH has closed roughly 70% of complaints against doctors reaching this stage with “no probable cause.” This means that over two-thirds of cases that were deemed relatively serious enough according to DOH’s standards were thrown out. The DOH claims complaints receive “careful review and consideration.”

However, in my grandfather’s case, they never contacted either the pathologist who performed his autopsy or the RN directly involved in his care, even after the pathologist independently reached out. Cindy Jenkins had an autopsy report that led Florida’s 9th District Medical Examiner’s Office to change her daughter’s cause of death.

It proved that the hospital’s claim of subdural hematomas in Taylor’s brain was objectively false. She obtained a sworn medical expert review, which noted violations of federal EMTALA laws in Taylor’s care and also concluded that her death was the result of reckless medical negligence. The DOH closed the cases against the physicians in her daughter’s care for “no probable cause” as well.

A clear pattern begins to emerge when listening to the testimonies of families whose loved ones were victims of fatal medical negligence under Florida’s Free Kill law: the Florida DOH is not justice; it’s a joke. A 2017 Sun Sentinel investigation found that Florida reviewed nearly 24,000 resolved malpractice cases against doctors over a decade. This includes not just cases with court judgments or jury verdicts, but also settlements, which account for the majority of outcomes.

Disciplinary charges were filed by the DOH only 128 times in this ten-year period, 0.5% of the time. The DOH appears to act with urgency only when a case receives major media attention. William Bryan’s case is a striking example. While visiting Florida, the 70-year-old underwent a splenectomy performed by Destin-area surgeon Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, despite reported hesitation from Bryan and hospital staff. During the operation, Shaknovsky killed Mr. Bryan by removing his liver instead of his spleen.

He was later indicted by a Florida grand jury for manslaughter. Even in a case this extreme, Florida’s Free Kill law shows how much accountability can depend on who a victim leaves behind. Under this law, if Bryan had been a widower survived only by an adult daughter over the age of twenty-five, civil justice wouldn’t be possible. This was not the first time Shaknovsky removed the wrong organ.

The previous year, he removed part of a patient’s pancreas during an adrenal gland operation. The patient survived with permanent injuries, and the case settled for approximately $400,000. In Florida, malpractice settlements like this are reported to the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), which collects data on claims and payouts. This information is forwarded to DOH for investigation.

Despite being aware of Shaknovsky’s conduct, the DOH took no disciplinary action, leaving Shaknovsky with a clean license while he continued operating at the same hospital where Bryan later died under his scalpel. Notably, one case here was quietly settled while the other was widely publicized. To conclude this section, even when the Florida DOH finds probable cause against a physician for medical negligence, meaningful disciplinary action is not guaranteed. Under Florida’s “three strikes” rule, it is possible for a physician to commit serious medical malpractice up to three times before the DOH would be forced to take away their license.

Those strikes can come from only three sources: a final civil judgment, binding arbitration, or a final administrative decision by the Florida DOH. For cases like my grandfather’s and Taylor’s, two of those pathways are unavailable due to Florida’s Free Kill law. In the context of the DOH doing nothing about major cases of medical malpractice, this leaves both of them with no justice in both Florida’s civil court and administrative systems.

____________________________________________________________________________ IV. Closing Arguments and The Future

Earlier, I argued that Florida’s free kill law can also affect potential criminal cases. My grandfather’s case shows how the law can shield criminality in the medical field. Doctors and attorneys who have reviewed the facts have repeatedly told my family that what happened was not merely malpractice but egregious criminal conduct.

When law enforcement receives reports of crimes involving medical providers, they often simply refer the matter to the Florida Department of Health rather than seriously pursuing it. That is what happened when my family reported the physicians who killed my grandfather in December 2022.

Similar patterns appeared in the cases of William Bryan and Hillary Brown, who died following a plastic surgery procedure performed by her husband, Dr. Ben Brown, who was later charged with manslaughter. Unlike my family, Bryan’s and Brown’s families could file malpractice lawsuits. Those cases quickly attracted widespread media scrutiny, which arguably pressured the DOH and other Florida officials to act. Lawsuits give victims’ families a public voice while also opening the door to discovery.

In Dr. Shaknovsky’s case, that process appears to have uncovered facts that strengthened the criminal understanding of what occurred and may have helped lead to his grand jury indictment. Because of Florida’s free kill law, my family couldn’t file a lawsuit. Because my family couldn’t file a lawsuit, there was no ability for us to immediately bring the issue into a courtroom, force discovery, and bring public attention to the legal case. Because my family couldn’t do all of that, the Florida Department of Health doesn’t care at all.

Because the Florida Department of Health doesn’t care, law enforcement went from mostly careless to entirely careless. Florida’s free kill law effectively creates a domino effect of injustice. Without going into overwhelming detail, the behavior of Florida state officials in my grandfather’s case strongly appears to resemble a state-sanctioned institutional cover-up. If anything, that conduct only reinforces why my mother should have had the right to sue the Florida physicians involved. Civil justice becomes necessary as a bare minimum when criminal and administrative systems fail, refuse to act, or cover up the truth.

In spring 2025, my mother, Ms. Jenkins, more than a dozen activists, and I traveled to Tallahassee to advocate for an end to Florida’s Free Kill law. A bipartisan 93% of the Florida Legislature voted for a clean repeal. Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed it. DeSantis refused repeated requests to meet with victims’ families and announced the veto inside a hospital, surrounded by doctors, hospital executives, and corporate lobbyists.

For supporters who viewed his COVID-19 record as opposition to that establishment, the scene was revealing. Governor DeSantis repeated the same talking points that have been debunked in this very article that you just read. Governor DeSantis also added insult to injury by offensively reducing families of fatal medical negligence victims to people seeking “jackpot justice.” It was astonishing to watch him have the audacity to say such a thing. No, Governor DeSantis, we want just justice. And when it comes to greed, I quote Ms. Jenkins once again on why this is more than just a Florida issue. “It [the Free Kill law] also allows the hospital and providers to profit from a wrongful death by strategically blocking a judgment that would force them to reimburse.

This is not just a Florida problem; it’s an American problem. Anyone who pays health insurance premiums and federal taxes, including Medicare and Medicaid, is funding these deaths in Florida since these hospitals get a free pass and they don’t have to reimburse.”

The only parties in this matter who are interested in jackpots are the hospital and insurance companies who cheered on the veto of the repeal of this barbaric law. Florida will elect a new governor in November 2026. On the Republican side, where the race will arguably be decided, James Fishback has supported repeal, though without clarifying whether he supports a clean repeal, the only morally justifiable option.

Byron Donalds has instead echoed lobbyist talking points and indicated he would consider repeal only if paired with discriminatory damage caps. Essentially, this holds the families of Free Kill victims hostage and makes the restoration of basic legal rights dependent on an unrelated and unconstitutional liability shield for negligent doctors and hospitals. In a video where Donald was asked about Florida’s Free Kill law, his primary concern appeared to be the name itself.

Rather than focusing on the families denied justice by the law, he objected to it being called “Free Kill,” as if the real scandal were the phrase rather than what the statute actually does. The name is harsh because the law is harsh: it effectively makes an arbitrary category of Americans a free kill for reckless and negligent physicians in Florida.

Any candidate who is more offended by the law’s name than by the reality of what the law does is not taking this issue seriously. This closes my argument for why the only purpose of Florida’s free kill law is to deny justice where it is so desperately needed, all for the pockets of the ultra-wealthy and powerful.

In no way does it protect patients, improve healthcare, or meaningfully lower costs. It simply shields powerful medical institutions, insurers, corporate interests, and even individual rogue physicians from accountability when their actions kill people. Whether one is a left-wing socialist or a right-wing free-market maximalist, repealing this law is consistent with the core economic instincts of both worldviews. Whether viewed as corporate protectionism or market distortion, the only conclusion is that Florida’s Free Kill law is a grotesque injustice.

I urge every Floridian reading this to contact their legislators, especially their state senator, and demand a clean repeal of Florida’s Free Kill law. This law exists because powerful institutions benefit from silence, confusion, and public inaction. That can only continue if ordinary people allow it to continue. Please visit Cindy Jenkins’ Healthcare Accountability Initiative at https://healthcareaccountability.org/ to learn more about what you can do to fight this injustice in the state of Florida.

No family should be told that their loved one’s life has no value. No dangerous physician or hospital should be handed immunity simply because the person they killed fell into the wrong legal category. Florida’s free kill law must be repealed.

Works Cited:

LaPorte, Mackenzie. “Family Who Lost Grandfather Pushes for Repeal of Florida’s ‘Free Kill’ Law.” WFLA News Channel 8.

Newman, Alex. “U.S. Debt Crosses Dangerous Threshold as States Push to Axe Property Tax.” Interview with Cindy Jenkins, The Liberty Sentinel. Relevant discussion begins at 28:19.

Florida Medical Association. “End-of-Session Report.” 2025. See “Recovery of Damages for Medical Negligence Resulting in Death.”

Florida Hospital Association. 2025 Annual Report. 2025. Page 7.

Florida Legislature. “Pre-Suit Investigation Requirements for Medical Negligence Claims.” Florida Statutes §§ 766.106, 766.203–766.205, 2025.

Estate of McCall v. United States, 134 So. 3d 894 (Fla. 2014). Florida Supreme Court opinion.

Congressional Budget Office. “CBO’s Analysis of the Effects of Proposals to Limit Costs Related to Medical Malpractice (‘Tort Reform’).” 9 Oct. 2009.

Mello, Michelle M., Amitabh Chandra, Atul A. Gawande, and David M. Studdert. “National Costs of the Medical Liability System.” Health Affairs, vol. 29, no. 9, 2010, pp. 1569–1577.

Florida Department of Health. Florida Physician Workforce Annual Report 2025. 2025.

Silverman, Cary, and Christopher E. Appel. Nuclear Verdicts: An Update on Trends, Causes, and Solutions. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, May 2024.

Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Medical Malpractice Closed Claim Database and Rate Filing Annual Reports. Reports covering claims closed from 2013 through 2022.

Florida Department of Health, Division of Medical Quality Assurance. Reports and Publications Library: Annual Reports and Long-Range Plans, Fiscal Years 2016–17 through 2024–25. See the annual “Probable Cause Actions” tables.

Hobbs, Stephen. “Dangerous Doctors: Malpractice Lawsuits Rarely Lead to Discipline.” South Florida Sun Sentinel, 19 Nov. 2017.

Law&Crime Network. Video report concerning the death of William Bryan and the criminal and civil allegations against Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky. YouTube.

WEAR Staff. “Gulf Breeze Plastic Surgeon Dr. Ben Brown Arrested for Death of His Wife.” WEAR-TV, 17 June 2024. Updated 18 June 2024.

LaGrone, Katie. “Records Show DeSantis Met with Opponents of ‘Free Kill’ Law Repeal, Not Victims’ Families.” WPTV.

LaPorte, Mackenzie. “Justice Delayed: Who’s Blocking Florida’s ‘Free Kill’ Repeal?” WFLA News Channel 8.

Donalds, Byron. Video response concerning Florida’s Free Kill law, repeal, and noneconomic-damages caps. Facebook.

Fishback, James. Post expressing support for repealing Florida’s free kill law. X.