The right to a jury trial “required Florida to base Timothy Hurst’s death sentence on a jury’s verdict, not a judge’s factfinding”, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote.
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Many feel the decision is also a setback for capital punishment supporters. In his solo dissent, Justice Samuel Alito also disagreed with the Court’s earlier Sixth Amendment rulings and argued that Florida’s system was far from identical to the one struck down by Ring.
A jury, by a 7-5 vote, had recommended to the judge that Hurst be executed but did not specify what aggravating factors it had found.
The case is Hurst v. Florida, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 14-7505. Instead, the judge sent him to death row.
“In light of today’s United States Supreme Court decision holding Florida’s capital sentencing procedure unconstitutional, the state will need to make changes to its death-sentencing statutes….”
Hurst’s case will now go back to the Florida Supreme Court for implementation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision.
“It is no surprise that the high court found Florida’s hit-or-miss death sentencing scheme unconstitutional”, Mark Elliott, Director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said in a statement.
In its 8-1 ruling, the country’s highest court said Florida’s sentencing is flawed because judges are given too much power over prisoners’ fates.
In the Hurst case, Florida’s solicitor general argued that the system was acceptable because a jury first decides if the defendant is eligible for the death penalty.
Florida ranks second in the nation behind California in the number of death row inmates, with a total of 400 individuals now awaiting execution. Florida House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, who learned of the ruling while he was giving a speech to open the state’s annual legislative session, said the Supreme Court had “impeccable timing”. He and ACLU leaders want Florida’s death sentences to be converted to life in prison.
Hurst was convicted of the 1998 murder of Cynthia Lee Harrison, a manager at a Popeye’s Fried Chicken restaurant in Escambia County, Florida.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Florida’s death penalty system is unconstitutional.
The court’s 10-page ruling is a victory for death-row inmate Timothy Lee Hurst and a direct challenge to Florida state lawmakers, who will probably have to rewrite the rules in order to fully preserve capital punishment. Well over half of those, 101, were sentenced by such life-to-death judicial overrides. The recent ruling could affect the ongoing cases in the state, but the ones where the decision is final will not be retrial. Under the Sixth Amendment, criminal defendants are guaranteed the right to trial “by an impartial jury”. “I think it’s really a harbinger of the day coming when the Supreme Court is going to strike it down”, Stubbs said.
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Zeigler’s attorney said Tuesday’s ruling should keep Zeigler from the death chamber and win his freedom.
