Supreme Court Strikes Down Florida’s Death Penalty System

Florida’s unique system for sentencing people to death is unconstitutional because it gives too much power to judges – and not enough to juries – to decide capital sentences, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The only justice opposed the ruling was Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote a dissent, saying that under Florida’s sentencing scheme, a trial judge merely formalizes a decision already made by the jury.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida’s capital punishment process based on a Pensacola case Tuesday, but the ruling’s effect on pending death penalty cases is still up in the air.

A Florida judge in the current system can overrule a jury’s decision for a death sentence and impose a life in prison sentence, but cannot impose a death sentence if a jury recommends life.

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”.

Florida and DE are the only states that require a simple majority jury vote for the death penalty.

“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.

Joshua Lee Altersberger, 26, was sentenced to death in 2009 for the 2007 murder of Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Nick Sottile along USA 27 near Lake Placid.

Death penalty opponents hailed the decision as progress toward abolition of capital punishment in the US.

Highlands County has sent two cases to Death Row: William Harold Kelley, 73, was tried for the October 3, 1966 murder-for-hire of Charles Von Maxcy.

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.

Timothy Hurst, the man at the center of the case, was implicated in a grisly crime that Sotomayor recounted.

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in a concurring opinion that he also found Florida’s sentencing unconstitutional but for different reasons. The judge isn’t bound by the jury’s determination, but he or she must give it “great weight”.

The decision came in the case of Timothy Lee Hurst, convicted of the brutal stabbing murder of a co-worker.

The high court has ordered a new sentencing hearing for Hurst. The accused stabbed the women with a box cutter, put the body in a freezer and stole about $1000 from the establishment, jurors found. He was sentenced to death in 2000. I will work with state lawmakers this legislative session to ensure that those changes comply with the Court’s latest decision.

Sotomayor added that “time and subsequent cases have washed away the logic” of earlier court decisions that upheld Florida’s system.