Citing Conflict With Florida Death-Penalty Ruling, Aramis Ayala Will Not Seek Re-Election As State Attorney

Aramis Ayala (pic­tured), the first African American elect­ed as a state attor­ney in Florida, will not seek re-elec­tion as Orange-Osceola County State Attorney. Citing con­flicts with the Florida Supreme Court’s pro­nounce­ments on cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions, Ayala announced in a Facebook video on May 28, 2019 that she would not pur­sue a sec­ond term as state attor­ney. ​“It’s time for me to move for­ward and to con­tin­ue the pur­suit of jus­tice in a dif­fer­ent capac­i­ty,” she said.

Ayala gained renown — and in oth­er cir­cles, noto­ri­ety — for her announce­ment ear­ly in her tenure that her office would nev­er seek the death penal­ty, say­ing it ​“is not in the best inter­ests of this com­mu­ni­ty or in the best inter­ests of jus­tice.” Then-Governor Rick Scott respond­ed by remov­ing Ayala from 29 mur­der cas­es and reas­sign­ing them to Lake County State Attorney Brad King, an avid death-penal­ty sup­port­er. The Florida Black Caucus and the fam­i­ly of a mur­der vic­tim in one of the reas­signed cas­es opposed Scott’s deci­sion, which had both racial and polit­i­cal impli­ca­tions. Scott, who lost the pop­u­lar vote in both Orange and Osceola Counties, was crit­i­cized for sub­sti­tut­ing his views for those of the local pre­dom­i­nant­ly Democratic elec­torate, tak­ing deci­sion-mak­ing author­i­ty away from a duly elect­ed African American woman, and reas­sign­ing that pow­er to a white-male Republican.

Ayala chal­lenged Scott’s action in court but, in August 2017, the Florida Supreme Court upheld his reas­sign­ment of the cas­es. The court ruled that Scott had act­ed ​“well with­in the bounds of the Governor’s broad author­i­ty.” In the video announc­ing her reelec­tion deci­sion, Ayala said that after that deci­sion, ​“it became abun­dant­ly clear to me that death penal­ty law in the state of Florida is in direct con­flict with my view and my vision for the admin­is­tra­tion of justice.”

In response to the Florida Supreme Court’s deci­sion, Ayala cre­at­ed a death penal­ty review pan­el to eval­u­ate cas­es and decide whether to seek a death sen­tence. The first cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion autho­rized by that pan­el result­ed in a plea deal in which Emerita Mapp received a sen­tence of life with­out parole. None of the new mur­der cas­es that Scott removed from Ayala’s office has result­ed in a death sen­tence. Ayala’s announce­ment video high­light­ed her accom­plish­ments as pros­e­cu­tor, includ­ing ​“rais[ing] the stan­dard of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al account­abil­i­ty” and improv­ing the diver­si­ty of the prosecutor’s office. Two can­di­dates have announced plans to run for state attor­ney in Ayala’s dis­trict in 2020: Democrat Ryan Williams and Republican Kevin Morenski.

Scott’s action in remov­ing cas­es from Ayala drew com­par­isons to New York Governor George Pataki’s removal of Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson in 1996 after Johnson said he would not seek the death penal­ty in the killing of a Bronx police offi­cer. Johnson was the state’s only African-American District Attorney at the time and had indi­cat­ed his oppo­si­tion to using the death penal­ty. Pataki took no action in any cas­es pros­e­cut­ed by Robert Morgenthau, the long-time Manhattan District Attorney, who was white and also had announced he would nev­er seek the death penalty.