Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the state’s procedure is flawed because juries work on an advisory role, and judges have the final say on sentencing.
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The United States Supreme Court, in an emphatic ruling Tuesday, declared Florida’s death penalty sentencing scheme to be a violation of the Sixth Amendment.
The high court sided with Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of the 1998 murder of his manager at a Popeye’s restaurant in Pensacola. The decisions are overruled to the extent they allow a sentencing judge to find an aggravating circumstance, independent of a jury’s fact-finding, that is necessary for imposition of the death penalty.’, the court said.
Hurst v. Florida is one of several cases the court has heard or will hear this term challenging the way states carry their capital sentencing regimes – though none of them directly attack the constitutionality of the death penalty.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida’s death sentencing system as unconstitutional on Tuesday, casting doubt on the status of all the state’s death sentences.
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”.
“The Sixth Amendment protects a defendant’s right to an impartial jury”, she wrote.
“The timing is right for us to make that necessary adjustment and modernize our death penalty system so we can continue to have capital punishment in the state of Florida”, said Rep. Gaetz.
Death penalty opponents have been pushing for change.
The supreme court finds that Florida’s system is unconstitutional, because it wrongly gives power to the judge, not the jury whether a killer should be executed. The likely result will be many more death row inmates returning to court for resentencing and potentially years of additional delays in executions. The high court did what the governor and legislators are required by their oaths of office to do – and it sent a signal that Florida’s practices, long an outlier, will remain in the public eye.
The decision could open the door to other sentencing challenges from many of Florida’s 385 men and five women now on death row, who together represent more 10% of the nation’s approximate 3,000 convicts awaiting execution, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and legal experts. “The impact of the Court’s ruling on existing death sentences will need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis”.
More broadly, the decision could affect other Florida death sentences – at least those still on direct appeal – and potentially more, depending on whether the decision is given retroactive effect in Florida. “And some will say cases that are similarly situated it would make sense it would apply to them”, said Schlackman.
Florida’s procedure ran afoul of the Sixth Amendment based on a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, the court held.
Alabama also allows judges to override a jury’s findings in death penalty sentencing hearings, but it’s not clear whether its system is affected by the case.
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Whitney Ray, director of media relations for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, said in an email Tuesday afternoon that “we are reviewing the ruling”.
