On May 5, the Florida Supreme Court will hear oral argu­ment in the case of Timothy Hurst, whose death sen­tence was over­turned in the U.S. Supreme Court’s deci­sion Hurst v. Florida. The state court must deter­mine whether the high court’s rul­ing, which struck down Florida’s sen­tenc­ing scheme, enti­tles Hurst to a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, reduces his sen­tence to life with­out parole, or requires some oth­er out­come. The case may also decide how the Hurst rul­ing will affect the near­ly 400 peo­ple on Florida’s death row. Hurst’s attor­neys say he should have his death sen­tence reduced because, ​“per­sons pre­vi­ous­ly sen­tenced to death for a cap­i­tal felony are enti­tled to have their now-uncon­sti­tu­tion­al death sen­tences replaced by sen­tences of life with­out parole.” That posi­tion received sup­port in an ami­cus brief filed by three for­mer chief jus­tices of the Florida Supreme Court, a for­mer state rep­re­sen­ta­tive, a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor, and past pres­i­dents of the American Bar Association. The jus­tice and legal experts argue that Hurst ​“held Florida’s death penal­ty statute uncon­sti­tu­tion­al,” and that in such cir­cum­stances Florida law requires all death sen­tences imposed under the statute to be reduced to life with­out parole. The state attor­ney gen­er­al’s office has argued that state law requires blan­ket impo­si­tion of new sen­tences only if the death penal­ty itself is declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, and that Hurst only declared Florida’s method of impos­ing the death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Florida has the nation’s sec­ond-largest death row, with 396 peo­ple as of January 1, 2016, before the state leg­is­la­ture rewrote the sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dure to require a unan­i­mous jury find­ing of at least one aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stance, and at least a 10 – 2 vote to impose a death sentence.

(S. Bousquet, ​“Three for­mer Florida Supreme Court chief jus­tices urge court to over­turn hun­dreds of death sen­tences,” Tampa Bay Times, May 3, 2016; M. Berman, ​“Florida has near­ly 400 death-row inmates. Will the state over­turn all of their death sen­tences?” The Washington Post, May 4, 2016; ​“FLORIDA’S HIGH COURT URGED TO THROW OUT DEATH SENTENCES,” Associated Press, May 3, 2016.) See Sentencing.

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