U.S. Supreme Court throws out Florida’ death penalty

“We hold this sentencing scheme unconstitutional”, the ruling said.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, however, that Florida’s capital sentencing procedure violates the Sixth Amendment right “to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury” because it regards a jury as merely “advisory”, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the majority. The court agreed, with only Justice Samuel Alito dissenting. The judge based the sentence in part on her independent determination.

The office for Seventh Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza, which will prosecute that case, said it is in the process of reviewing the decision. The decision of the Florida Supreme Court was made relying on SCOTUS rulings in Spaziano v. Florida and Hildwin v. Florida, wherein it was held that Sixth Amendment “does not require that the specific findings authorizing the imposition of the sentence of death be made by the jury”.

Hurst was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of Cynthia Harrison, his supervisor at the Popeyes on Nine Mile Road. But it is unclear whether all seven agreed on both, or, for example, whether four agreed on one and three on the other.

The supreme court finds that Florida’s system is unconstitutional, because it wrongly gives power to the judge, not the jury whether a killer should be executed.

However, that recommendation need not be unanimous, something often criticized by death penalty opponents. The judge makes the final sentencing decision, giving “great weight” to the jury’s recommendation.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that a defendant has the right to have a jury decide whether the circumstances of a crime warrant a sentence of death.

It was unclear how the ruling would immediately affect the 400 inmates facing the death penalty in Florida, though a number of similar challenges might be forthcoming.

Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, praised the high court’s decision.

“In general, it will not be retroactively applied”, Harper said.

“There will be those who argue that it applies to Florida’s entire death row”. “This isn’t like some Supreme Court decisions that forever bind us to a particular ideology”.

Sotomayor said in the majority opinion that the high court would leave it to the state courts in Florida to decide whether the error was harmless.

“The Florida Supreme Court has a dozen different directions that it can go in and the only certain thing is that this is going to be litigated for a long time”, he said.

Crisafulli said House legal experts would begin to review the ruling. Marquardt has been on Florida’s death row since 2012.

Other states are likely to be affected as well.

“Florida’s sentencing scheme, which required the judge alone to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance, is therefore unconstitutional”, she wrote in the lead opinion in Hurst v. Florida, a case the court heard in October. The 8-1 decision is the latest blow against the death penalty in the United States, where state courts, legislatures and governors have been scaling back, suspending or abolishing capital punishment in growing numbers over the past decade.