Juries Get the Last Word in Florida’s Death Penalty, Supreme Court Says

“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. This right required Florida to base Timothy Hurst’s death sentence on a jury’s verdict, not a judge’s fact-finding, said the Court while holding the scheme unconstitutional. Florida law empowers judges to expose defendants to greater punishments than are authorized by juries.

Florida has about 400 prisoners on death row, second only to California.

The Supreme Court’s ruling casts doubt on the status of the 390 inmates on death row in Florida. A jury divided 7-5 in favor of death, but a judge imposed the sentence.

At the heart of the high court ruling, was the fact that the judge, rather than the jury, was responsible for “fact finding” that led to Hurst receiving the death penalty.

Hurst, described by his lawyers as mentally disabled with “borderline intelligence” and an IQ between 70 and 78, was sentenced to death for the murder of Harrison, a manager at a Popeyes restaurant where he worked.

Under Florida’s system, juries render an “advisory sentence” by a majority vote after an evidentiary hearing, without specifying the factual basis for their recommendation. The study also found requiring unanimity could drop death sentences in Florida by close to 70 percent.

Under Florida law, the maximum sentence for a murder conviction alone is life imprisonment. “The Eighth Amendment requires that a jury, not a judge, make the decision to sentence a defendant to death'”. The case is Hurst v. Florida.

Nationwide, Cassandra Stubbs, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Capital Punishment Project, predicted that the decision “represents another step on the inevitable road toward ending the death penalty” because of jurors’ decreasing willingness to impose death. 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.

Florida is one of only three states that does not require a unanimous jury verdict when sentencing someone to death.

Assistant State Attorney Ryan Butler said after consulting with the Attorney General’s Office, Tisdale is one of two murder cases from the Treasure Coast that may be affected by Tuesday’s opinion.

Though the judge followed the decision of the majority of jurors in the case, the judge in her written order said she also based her decision in part on her independent determination that the case had some aggravating factors warranting a death sentence. The jury in Hurst’s trial did not specifically articulate the aggravating factors that made him eligible for the death penalty, while the judge who ultimately decided Hurst’s sentence did. Under the Sixth Amendment, criminal defendants are guaranteed the right to trial “by an impartial jury”. The court agreed, with only Justice Samuel Alito dissenting. Tuesday’s ruling said Florida’s system was similarly flawed.