In declaring that system unconstitutional, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the court majority, said that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial “requires a jury and not a judge to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death”. But in its opinion Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Florida violates due process protections by allowing a judge – and not a jury – to determine the facts necessary to impose the death penalty.
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“The court opinion really reflects the same argument and same application of case law and legal logic we’ve made in Florida courts since Ring and Apprendi came out in 2002”, Miller said, a reference to Arizona and New Jersey cases where the Supreme Court said juries must decide the death penalty.
The case that up-ended Florida’s death penalty statute involved Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of murdering his boss at a Popeye’s restaurant in Pensacola in 1998. The second jury voted 7 to 5 and recommended a death sentence without specifying the aggravating factors they had found.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declared that Florida’s death penalty sentencing system is unconstitutional.
“It is no surprise that the High court found Florida’s hit-or-miss death sentencing scheme unconstitutional”, said Mark Elliott, Director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP), “Florida leads the nation in sending innocent people to death row”.
The Supreme Court’s decision could affect how other capital cases are handled in Florida, where almost 400 inmates are on death row, and could spur further review of Alabama’s similar sentencing structure.
In reversing and remanding that decision, Sotomayor said the jury’s role in capital sentencing is crucial. A felon may only be sentenced to death if an additional sentencing proceeding “results in findings by the court that such person shall be punished by death”.
Dissenting alone, Justice Samuel A. Alito said the justices had upheld Florida’s system in the past.
Attorney General Pam Bondi says she’ll work with lawmakers to make the court-required changes, but says the impact on existing death sentences will need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
In Hurst’s case, prosecutors asked the jury to consider two aggravating factors: the murder was committed during a robbery and it was “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel”.
The case, which was argued in October, will return to the Florida Supreme Court.
The case, Hurst v. Florida, challenged Florida’s unusual method of imposing death sentences. He and ACLU leaders want Florida’s death sentences to be converted to life in prison.
Zaldivar told WESH 2 News that Okafor should get no break from the high court’s decision.
There are now 390 inmates on Florida’s death row.
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“The death penalty is still constitutional; we will still follow this law in appropriate cases”, said de la Rionda. Today’s decision on Florida’s death penalty isn’t entirely what it appears to be at first blush.
