The Supreme Court said the flaw in Florida’s capital sentencing system was that it relied on the judge rather than the jury to make the final determination that the defendant would be sentenced to death.
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The 8-1 decision said Florida’s system is flawed because juries can only recommend the death penalty while judges make the final decision. “This right required Florida to base Timothy Hurst’s death sentence on a jury verdict, not a judge’s fact-finding”.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote the majority opinion, said a jury’s “mere recommendation is not enough”.
The ruling is based on the case of Timothy Lee Hurst, who murdered his manager at a Popeye’s restaurant in Pensacola in 1998.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down Florida’s system of letting judges, not juries, decide whether convicted criminals deserve the death penalty. The high court said in the earlier ruling that aggravating factors that are required for a death sentence must be determined by juries, not judges.
The Court also rejected the State of Florida’s contention that sentencing jury recommended a death sentence, it “necessarily included a finding of an aggravating circumstance”.
“I don’t know what took them so long”, Palm Beach County Public Defender Carey Haughwout said of the opinion, adding that defense attorneys in Florida have been appealing death sentences under those grounds ever since the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Arizona v. Ring.
“It’s a great day for justice here in Florida”, Altman said after the court’s ruling.
“We conclude that the record provides sufficient evidence from which a rational trier of fact could convict Marquardt of the first-degree murder of Ruiz and Wells, as well as burglary of a dwelling with a firearm”. If the jury has issued a recommendation, the judge doesn’t have to follow it. No other state gives judges such discretion. And that could have a major impact for convicts on death row, right now.
It’s not clear how numerous 390 inmates on Florida’s Death Row the ruling would affect. Legal experts say it is unlikely it would be retroactively applied to those who have exhausted their appeals.
Sen. Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, is the sponsor of a bill that would reform the state’s death penalty more broadly.
News of the high court’s decision stunned Florida legislators. Justice Samuel Alito dissented, saying Florida trial judges simply review what the jury has done.
The decision striking down Hurst’s conviction would be consequential for the state’s trial proceedings, which has the second largest death row in the nation with 401 prisoners. “It would seem to require the Florida legislature to pass a new statute if it wants to continue to sentence people to death”.
“Why the State of Florida can’t forgive us for our sins”, asks Herman Lindsey.
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Radelet, now a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said he expects the Florida Supreme Court will at least temporarily block all future executions.
