Florida Supreme Court decides jury must be unanimous for death penalty to be imposed

TALLAHASSEE  — The Florida Supreme Court on Friday struck down the Legislature's death-penalty ruling guidelines created earlier this year and ordered a new law requiring a unanimous jury for death sentences.

The court, in a 5-2 decision, declared unconstitutional a law that allowed a death sentence when 10 of 12 jurors agreed. The court ruled the law could not be used in future prosecutions.

“Requiring unanimous jury recommendations of death before the ultimate penalty may be imposed will ensure that in the view of the jury — a veritable microcosm of the community — the defendant committed the worst of murders with the least amount of mitigation,” the ruling states.

The court ruling did not address a  request to have sentences reduced for the 385 inmates sitting on Florida’s death row.

But it could allow inmates to be resentenced, said Sonya Rudenstine, who filed briefs in the case on behalf of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

“I think it is safe to say that everyone, or virtually everyone, on death row now has a legitimate basis for requesting a new sentencing hearing,” Rudenstine said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi will decide Monday, during a conference call with 20 state prosecutors, whether to appeal the decision, said Buddy Jacobs, general counsel for the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association.

“We have a lot of people working through the weekend to take a look at this, and right now we need to come to one decision,” Jacobs said. “I wouldn’t rule anything out just yet.”

If there is no challenge from prosecutors, the ruling will be addressed during the upcoming legislative session by House Speaker-designate Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, who described the decision as a “miscarriage of justice.”

“This decision is indicative of a court that comes to a conclusion, then seeks a judicial pathway, however tortured, to achieve its desired result,” Corcoran wrote in a statement. “That is antithetical to the rule of law and dangerous for our state.”

Gov. Rick Scott offered no insight after the ruling. His staff was reviewing the decision, spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said.

State Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, and four other members of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee wanted the law to require a unanimous jury decision.

But the House wanted the 10-2 supermajority.

“That being said, there was always a concern that this day would come,” said Bradley, who was also a prosecutor.

Bradley said rather than challenging the ruling, state legislators should change the law.

“I think our time would be better spent working on what needs to be changed,” Bradley said.

Other Republican lawmakers rejected Bradley’s call for a unanimous jury decision after prosecutors indicated very few death penalty sentences were recommended unanimously.

The House bill offered a 9-3 majority, and the two chambers agreed on the 10-2 majority.

The Supreme Court ruled that Timothy Lee Hurst, who fatally stabbed a co-worker 61 times in 1998 at a Pensacola fast food restaurant, deserved a new sentencing. Seven of the 12 jurors in his case agreed to the death penalty. A trial judge ultimately handed down the death sentence.

Hurst was sentenced under the previous state law the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in January as unconstitutional. That law allowed a judge to issue a death sentence after a majority of jurors recommended capital punishment..

Lawmakers changed the law this year to require at least 10 jurors recommending death.

The state Supreme Court said the new law should require a unanimous jury decision. Also, the jury should be unanimous in each circumstance that warrants a death penalty. Previously, as in the Hurst case, those circumstances were weighed by a trial judge.

“We equally emphasize that by so holding, we do not intend to diminish or impair the jury’s right to recommend a sentence of life even if it finds aggravating factors were proven, were sufficient to impose death, and they outweigh the mitigating circumstances,” the ruling states.

Chief Justice Jorge Labarga ruled in favor of the ruling, along with Justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis, James E.C. Perry and Peggy Quince. Justices Charles T. Canady and Ricky Polston were opposed.

In his dissenting opinion, Canady wrote the justices in the majority misinterpreted the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, “thereby unnecessarily disrupting the administration of the death penalty in Florida.”

The court rejected a request by Hurst to have his prison sentence reduced to life without parole, and it did not address identical requests from Florida death row inmates. However, the ruling will prompt current inmates to request a new sentence like Hurst, Rudenstine said.

“I know of no one on death row in Florida who was sentenced by a jury that was informed of these two indispensable rights and duties before recommending a death sentence,” Rudenstine said.  “And no judge should try to guess now as to how any jurors, collectively or individually, would have decided a given case had they been so instructed.”

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