Making the decision to sentence a felon convicted in Florida to the death penalty was moved last week out of the judge’s chamber and into the jury room by the U.S. Supreme Court.
But, the state attorney and a local criminal defense attorney aren’t sure how the ruling will ultimately affect Florida courts, since a similar ruling by the high court in 2002 has been ignored.
The 8-1 ruling Jan. 12 addressed aggravating circumstances that must be found before defendants can be sentenced to death. In 2002, the high court ruled in Ring v. Arizona the determination of aggravating circumstances must be made by juries, not judges.
In Florida, juries are required to make recommendations to judges regarding the death penalty after considering aggravating and mitigating circumstances. Judges then decide whether to impose the death sentence.
The decision came in the appeal of Timothy Lee Hurst, who was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of restaurant worker Cynthia Harrison in Pensacola.
Harrison was an assistant manager at Popeye’s Fried Chicken, where Hurst worked. She was bound, gagged and stabbed more than 60 times before her body was placed in a freezer.
The jury in the Hurst case recommended a death sentence on a 7-5 vote.
In sentencing Hurst to death, the trial judge found the murder was committed during a robbery and that it was “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.” Both are aggravating circumstances.
In the Supreme Court’s majority opinion, Justice Sonya Sotamayor cited the Constitution and wrote the decision should not have been the judge’s to make.
“The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death. A jury’s mere recommendation is not enough,” she wrote.
In the dissenting opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that, at the time of sentencing, judges perform a “reviewing function.”
While judges can impose a different sentence from what the jury recommends, the judge must give the jury’s recommendations “great weight,” Alito wrote.
Jacksonville criminal defense attorney Thomas Bell said the impact of the ruling won’t be known until the Legislature weighs in on the issue.
He pointed out courts have ignored the ruling in Ring v. Arizona for 13 years.
“Florida courts and prosecutors have resisted accepting that as law,” Bell said. “Hopefully, they will understand the implications of the decision.”
In a story published by The News Service of Florida, former Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan said the ruling could “stop executions in Florida for quite a time,” depending on the impact the decision might have on more than 400 inmates on Florida’s Death Row.
“What happened today is, in my opinion, going to basically cause a moratorium on capital cases until the Supreme Court has time to sort this out,” he said.
Kogan also predicted the ruling would cause an avalanche of appeals as attorneys will file whatever actions they can to prevent their clients from being executed.
The first was filed by lawyers for Cary Michael Lambrix, who has been on Death Row for more than three decades. His attorneys asked the Florida Supreme Court to indefinitely postpone the Feb. 11 execution, according to The News Service of Florida.
The Florida Supreme Court refused to grant the stay but ordered oral arguments for Feb. 2.
The court instructed lawyers from both sides to “be prepared to address the applicability of Hurst v. Florida ... including whether Hurst is retroactive, the effect of Hurst given the aggravating factors in Lambrix’s case, and whether any error is harmless,” the News Service of Florida reported.
State Attorney Angela Corey said she and her fellow prosecutors are ready to work with the Legislature to change court procedure. Representatives of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association plan to meet with Attorney General Pam Bondi this week to begin discussions, she said.
In the meantime, Corey said, “We will continue to appropriately and aggressively seek the death penalty when it’s warranted.”
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