Supreme Court Strikes Down Florida’s Process Of Imposing Death Penalty

“Juries across the country have become increasingly reluctant to vote in favor of death”.

Still even staunch conservatives on the bench have conceded that the courts will inevitably have to decide once again whether to keep the death penalty as the law of the land.

“In other words, depending on how the Florida Supreme Court interprets its own retroactivity provisions, today’s opinion could apply to everyone on Florida’s death row”, Menschel said.

“Florida is going to have to change somewhat the scheme we’ve got right now, but in the long run, I still think we will get as many death penalty cases as we have handled, and we will get as many death penalty recommendations- or now sentences- as we have”, he says. After a conviction, the jury moves to the sentencing phase of the trial. Sotomayor said Florida’s system, which provides for an advisory jury recommendation, fell short. The judge can also weigh other factors independently.

“Obviously we are very pleased with the decision”, said Litty, who was studying how the decision could impact Tisdale’s possible punishment.

The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday ruled that Florida’s death penalty system is unconstitutional, arguing that the state gives too much discretion to judges instead of juries in doling out death sentences, Bloomberg reported.

The court’s ruling says that a jury must impose a death sentence.

Connie Fuselier, the mother of Hurst’s victim, said she doesn’t care if he is executed at this point, but she can’t bear the thought of more legal proceedings.

The Florida system was actually upheld by the Supreme Court in the 1980s, a fact the justices acknowledged on Tuesday.

In 27 of the 31 states that maintain the death penalty, the jury makes the final decision whether to impose the death penalty.

The high court’s decision came in the appeal of convicted murderer Timothy Lee Hurst, who was sentenced to death for the 1998 killing of fast-food worker Cynthia Harrison in Pensacola. Under current law, a simple majority is enough to recommend the death penalty.

Until the ruling Tuesday, Florida judges had ultimate discretion on whether to impose the death penalty or life imprisonment. He was granted a new sentencing hearing in 2012.

The Supreme Court in 2002 held the Constitution requires that defendants are entitled to a jury finding on any factor that can increase a sentence. A state review of almost 300 sentences in the past decade found that juries were split in 80 percent of death penalty cases.

In a dissent, Justice Samuel Alito said the Florida jury in the Hurst case played a significant role in determining factors necessary to justify a death sentence. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the majority Tuesday, disagreed.

Assistant Public Defender Al Chipperfield agreed there is uncertainty now regarding how to proceed in cases that either are in the middle of a trial or for which the trial is about to begin in light of the Supreme Court’s decision. Though Hurst maintains his innocence, prosecutors successfully made a case that he robbed and brutally murdered the woman, Alito wrote. “In light of this evidence, it defies belief to suggest that the jury would not have found the existence of either aggravating factor if its finding was binding”. As such, Sotomayor reasoned, the court’s prior opinions required a jury to make that determination. “Nobody should be surprised by this decision by the nation’s highest court”. He’s filed similar legislation in the past.

There are 400 prisoners in Florida living on death row, and it’s likely that many will seek appeals in the wake of the justices’ decision.

Florida’s American Civil Liberties Union is calling on state officials to re-examine the sentences of all death row inmates. Florida has 390 people on death row.

The case is Hurst v. Florida, 14-7505.