U.S. Supreme Court Finds Florida Death Penalty Sentencing Unconstitutional

“I think it’s really a harbinger of the day coming when the Supreme Court is going to strike it down”, Stubbs said. He was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of an assistant manager at a Popeye’s restaurant where he also worked. The jury voted 7-5 in favor of death, and a judge imposed the death sentence. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she will work with legislators to change state law to comply with the court’s decision. “The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death”. But if it did, Justice Alito wrote that Florida’s error was harmless because Mr. Hurst had committed crimes that clearly justified death.

Justice Samuel Alito dissented, saying that the trial judge in Florida simply performs a reviewing function that duplicates what the jury has done. But the judge is not bound by those findings and can reach a different conclusion. “Under Florida’s sentencing scheme, the recommendation of a jury is only advisory, and the judge is – unconstitutionally, as the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled today – given the power to be the ultimate fact-finder”.

Holding that the present case is similar to that in Ring case, the Court said ‘As with Timothy Ring, the maximum punishment Timothy Hurst could have received without any judge-made findings was life in prison without parole.

Sotomayor’s opinion left open the possibility that Florida could make other arguments for sustaining Hurst’s sentence.

Florida’s procedure ran afoul of the Sixth Amendment based on a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, the court held. But it is unclear whether all seven agreed on both, or, for example, whether four agreed on one and three on the other. “Florida’s sentencing scheme, which required the judge alone to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance, is therefore unconstitutional”, she concluded.

Butler said former Indian River County resident Rodney Lowe, who has twice been sentenced to death, has an appeal pending after a jury in 2012 returned him to death row for the murder of a Sebastian store clerk. “…Tuesday’s ruling on the Florida law appeared to have completed that process in any case in which a death sentence is at issue”.

“There will be those who argue that it applies to Florida’s entire death row”.

Eddins said with six to eight local pre-trial cases, he was working with the court system to see if there were any internal processes that could be adjusted. “Nobody should be surprised by this decision by the nation’s highest court”.

The justices handed down their decision just as the House and Senate were convening for the 2016 legislative session.

Crisafulli said House legal experts would begin to review the ruling. There are now 187 death row inmates in Alabama, according to the Equal Justice Initiative.

Coxe says the Supreme Court decision isn’t surprising because the high court already declared in 2002 juries have sole responsibility for deciding the aggravating factors, those case specifics that warrant execution.

The action is expected to make it more hard to issue death sentences in Florida by requiring the direct involvement of a jury in the decision to end a convicted defendant’s life.