Florida high court delays Michael Lambrix execution

Tuesday’s unanimous order also denied Lambrix’s request to send the case to a lower court, meaning the Florida Supreme Court is likely to weigh in on the sentencing issue. But his black bordered death warrant was signed weeks before the U-S Supreme Court ruled that the way Florida sentences people to death is unconstitutional.

Florida has an execution set for next week.

Lambrix is scheduled to be executed February 11. In Florida, juries can only recommend, not impose the death sentence. That leaves a big question.

Martin McClain argued Tuesday before Florida’s Supreme Court that last month’s ruling should apply to Michael Lambrix’s and all decided death penalty cases. The high court ruling threw into limbo the nation’s second-largest death row, and invalidated a system that has allowed judges, rather than juries, to specify the aggravating factors that determine a defendant’s eligibility for execution.

Tuesday’s arguments made clear that the Florida court is grappling with the meaning of the ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling stems from the case of Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of the 1998 murder of a co-worker at a restaurant in Pensacola. That decision led to a moratorium on executions whiles states rewrote their laws on capital punishment. Instead, it would increase the number of jurors required to recommend death from a simple majority of seven out of 12 to a super-majority of nine.

Florida’s “statute is different”, McClain said.

The state, however, does not want the decision to be applied retroactively.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office argues that Lambrix should be executed as scheduled. “If Ring is not retroactive”, prosecutors wrote in their brief, “then Hurst can not be retroactive”.

The lawyer wants everyone on Death row to get a life sentence.

O.H. Eaton, a retired circuit judge in Florida who’s an expert on the death penalty nationwide, says it’s entirely possible Florida’s highest court will find the Hurst ruling does not apply to those on death row.

“Because a lot of these cases are very old”, Eaton says.

The Florida court has repeatedly decided that Ring did not apply retroactively in previous death penalty cases, Browne pointed out. But Rep. Randolph Bracy (D-Ocoee) says the death penalty is applied unevenly, and requiring unanimity throughout the process might reduce racial disparities.

Justices appeared conflicted during the arguments about how to apply the ruling in Florida.

For death penalty opponents, Florida’s majority jury provision is likely next on the to-do list. A Senate panel held a similar hearing last week.