Florida has nearly 400 death row prisoners, behind California, which has the most but rarely carries out the sentences. But legal experts said it may apply only to those whose initial appeals are not yet exhausted.
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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.
“Our Legislature has repeatedly been warned by the Florida Supreme Court, legislators who had proposed corrective legislation, and advocates like the ACLU that the sentencing structure in Florida, by which a unanimous jury recommendation is required for guilt, but only a simple majority can recommend a sentence of death, is unconstitutional”, said Howard Simon, executive director with the ACLU of Florida.
The judge, however, is not obliged to follow the jury’s advice in deciding whether the necessary aggravating circumstances are present in the murder to justify the death penalty. What is surprising is that eight justices, including four of the five conservatives on the Court, were willing to strike down a capital sentencing regime in one of the most aggressive death penalty states in the country.
So she and Curt Hills, the paper’s managing editor for special projects, and production editor Amy Johstono headed up to Tallahassee to dig through the records.* In some cases, they were able to find the information on jury verdicts from online records of the Florida Supreme Court, but for many they had to dig through the Florida Archives.
Justice Samuel Alito dissented, saying that the trial judge in Florida simply performs a reviewing function that duplicates what the jury has done. A judge sentenced Hurst to death after a jury recommended execution on a 7-5 vote. In 2013, Alito essentially admitted that he doesn’t much care if a judge increases a defendant’s sentence based on facts not proved to the jury. While judges can impose a different sentence from that recommended by the jury, the judge must give the jury’s recommendation “great weight”, Alito wrote. First, the case will return to the Florida Supreme Court to determine whether Hurst’s death sentence can be upheld on other grounds.
Florida requires juries to make recommendations to judges regarding the death penalty after considering aggravating and mitigating circumstances, with judges ultimately imposing the sentences.
Three of Florida’s current death row inmates were sentenced over the jury’s life recommendation.
She also dug up a number that is important to consider as Florida’s death penalty process is in the headlines: How many inmates on Florida’s death row were sent there without a unanimous jury verdict during the penalty phase of the trial?
Tuesday’s ruling relied on a 2002 decision that struck down Arizona’s judge-driven system for deciding death penalty cases.
“In general, it will not be retroactively applied”, Harper said.
Florida’s reliance on Blakely v. Washington, 542 U. “As a policy maker, I think it will be a high priority for the Legislature to remedy the defects in our death penalty process so that this issue is quickly resolved”, said Sen. “The impact of the Court’s ruling on existing death sentences will need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis”.
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Cervone and his staff now have to analyze what the Supreme Court’s decision means for them going forward, said Darry Lloyd, spokesman for the Eighth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office.
