A jury recommended a death sentence for Hurst, but it was the judge who held a separate hearing and determined there were sufficient aggravating circumstances to impose the death penalty, the high court said.
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The case involved Timothy Hurst, who was convicted of the 1998 murder of Cynthia Lee Harrison, his coworker at a Popeyes fast-food restaurant in Pensacola. Once again, a jury recommended a death sentence for Hurst, but they did so on a 7-to-5 vote – indicating that at least some of the jurors weren’t fully convinced that the circumstances of Hurst’s case merited a death sentence. The state supreme court had found Florida’s system met the Sixth Amendment standards because earlier U.S. Supreme Court decisions that found it acceptable hadn’t explicitly been overruled.
Under the court’s decision, Florida now must resentence Hurst by allowing a jury to determine whether the facts of his case merit the death penalty or only a term of life in prison.
The Supreme Court ruled that this violates the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee that all defendants have the right to an impartial jury. “In the interest of bringing this protracted litigation to a close, I would rule on the issue of harmless error and would affirm the decision of the Florida Supreme Court”, he added. The judge can also weigh other factors independently. Florida Supreme Court affirmed the sentence rejecting the argument of the convict that this capital sentencing scheme is unconstitutional.
Hurst is the latest in a series of Supreme Court cases over the past several years that have nibbled around the edges of capital sentencing in the USA, taking on lethal injection drugs, jury selection, execution of the mentally handicapped and of convicts for crimes committed as juveniles, and jury instructions.
Florida and DE are the only states that require a simple majority jury vote for the death penalty.
The ruling will likely give new sentencing hearings to inmates who were recently sentenced to death in Florida, but the justices in the past have said such new rulings do not apply automatically to old cases.
Justice Samuel Alito filed the lone dissent, arguing Florida judges perform only “what amounts, in practical terms, to a reviewing function” which “duplicates the steps previously performed by the jury”.
Timothy Lee Hurst might escape death as the Supreme Court deemed his verdict “unconstitutional”. “A jury’s recommendation is not enough”.
The 8-1 ruling is significant because Florida has almost 400 prisoners on death row, second only to California – and unlike California, it conducts executions regularly.
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Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, praised the high court’s decision. Neither did Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. The State Attorney’s Office for the 14th Judicial Circuit says they are assessing the impact this opinion will have on its 12 defendants on death row. Alabama was the only other state that shares this capital sentencing practice.
