Duane Owen, Sentenced by Non-Unanimous Jury, is Scheduled to be Florida’s Fourth Execution of the Year

Duane Owen is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Florida on June 15, 2023. If it occurs, his exe­cu­tion will be the fourth exe­cu­tion in Florida this year, after a three year pause in exe­cu­tions due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. Mr. Owen was con­vict­ed in 1986 of crimes that occurred in 1984.

Mr. Owen’s attor­neys have pre­sent­ed evi­dence that he is incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed. They argued it was error for the Florida courts to find that ​“the psy­chi­a­trists that only briefly exam­ined Owen were more cred­i­ble than the neu­ropsy­chol­o­gist who spent over 13 hours with Owen con­duct­ing inter­views and test­ing.” Gov. DeSantis, who ini­tial­ly grant­ed a stay so that Mr. Owen could under­go psy­chi­atric exam­i­na­tion and appoint­ed the exam­in­ing psy­chi­a­trists who found him sane, dis­solved the stay after three days.

Mr. Owen was sen­tenced to death for two sep­a­rate crimes, and in both cas­es was sen­tenced by a non-unan­i­mous jury (10 – 2). Florida allowed judges to issue death sen­tences based on rec­om­men­da­tions from non-unan­i­mous juries until a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing in the case Hurst v. Florida held the prac­tice uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Mr. Owen did not receive relief under that rul­ing after the Florida Supreme Court deter­mined that the rule would not apply retroac­tive­ly to 169 pris­on­ers who had com­plet­ed their direct appeals before 2002. Two of the three oth­er men exe­cut­ed in Florida in 2023 were also sen­tenced by non-unanimous juries. 

Data on cap­i­tal exon­er­a­tions in states which allowed non-unan­i­mous death sen­tences indi­cate that the prac­tice increas­es the risk of wrong­ful con­vic­tions. One or more jurors had vot­ed for life in more than 90% of the death-row exon­er­a­tions in states that per­mit­ted judges to impose death sen­tences based on a jury’s non-unan­i­mous sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tions or allowed them to over­ride jury votes for life.

Gov. DeSantis, who has declared him­self a can­di­date in the 2024 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, recent­ly signed a new bill into law that once again allows non-unan­i­mous juries to sen­tence defen­dants to death, pro­vid­ed they unan­i­mous­ly find the exis­tence of a statu­to­ry aggra­vat­ing fac­tor. The law allows a death sen­tence when at least 8 jurors vote in favor, mak­ing Florida ​“the state with the low­est thresh­old” for death in the nation, accord­ing to the New York Times.