STUDIES: Requiring Jury Unanimity Would Decrease U.S. Death Sentences by 21%

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argu­ment on October 13 in Hurst v. Florida, a case chal­leng­ing pro­vi­sions in Florida​’s death penal­ty statute that do not require jurors to unan­i­mous­ly agree to the facts that could sub­ject a defen­dant to a death sen­tence or to reach una­nim­i­ty before rec­om­mend­ing that the judge sen­tence a defen­dant to death. Florida is one of just three states that does not require a unan­i­mous jury ver­dict when sen­tenc­ing some­one to death. 

A study by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School found that requir­ing jury una­nim­i­ty in Florida, Alabama, and Delaware would have caused a dra­mat­ic drop in death sen­tences over the last 5 years. Overall, the three states would have returned 26 death sen­tences since 2010, instead of 117 — a 77% drop — and Florida would have imposed 70% few­er death ver­dicts. The three states that do not require una­nim­i­ty in death sen­tenc­ing have pro­duced a dis­pro­por­tion­ate share of the nation’s death sen­tences, account­ing for 28% of all U.S. death sen­tences since 2010. Had these states fol­lowed the sen­tenc­ing sys­tem used by every oth­er death penal­ty state, the total num­ber of death sen­tences imposed in the United States would have decreased by 21%. (Click here for full infographic.)