Florida Supreme Court Allows Death Penalty Prosecutions to Proceed

In a retreat from one of its pri­or deci­sions, the Florida Supreme Court ruled on February 20 that pros­e­cu­tors could move for­ward with death penal­ty tri­als under Florida’s con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly flawed cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing statute, pro­vid­ed the tri­al court specif­i­cal­ly instructs the sen­tenc­ing jurors that they must unan­i­mous­ly find all facts that could make a defen­dant eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty and that they must unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend death before the tri­al judge may impose a death sen­tence. In January 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida’s death penal­ty law in Hurst v. Florida because the tri­al judge, rather than the jury, was respon­si­ble for find­ing crit­i­cal facts nec­es­sary to impose a death sen­tence. In response to that deci­sion, the Florida leg­is­la­ture amend­ed the state’s cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing statute to require juries to unan­i­mous­ly find at least one aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stance, but allowed the tri­al judge to impose a death sen­tence if at least 10 of 12 jurors rec­om­mend­ed death. In October 2016, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in Perry v. State that this new sen­tenc­ing statute vio­lat­ed the state and fed­er­al con­sti­tu­tions because it uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly per­mit­ted the judge to impose death despite a nonunan­i­mous sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tion by the jury. At that time, the court declared that the sen­tenc­ing law ​“can­not be applied to pend­ing pros­e­cu­tions.” The lat­est rul­ing, in the cas­es of Patrick Albert Evans v. State of Florida and Juan Rosario v. State of Florida, revers­es that deci­sion. Legislators have pro­posed bills to revise the law and bring it in line with the court’s October rul­ing. The lat­est deci­sion allows death penal­ty cas­es to pro­ceed even before such leg­is­la­tion is passed, but courts will only be allowed to impose a death sen­tence if the jury first unan­i­mous­ly agrees that it is the appropriate sentence. 

(B. Farrington, ​“Florida pros­e­cu­tors can seek death penal­ty despite ques­tions,” Associated Press, February 21, 2017; D. Kam, ​“Florida death penal­ty cas­es allowed to move for­ward despite ques­tions,” Orlando Weekly, February 21, 2017.) Read the Florida Supreme Court’s February 20, 2017 joint deci­sion in Evans v. State, No. SC16-1946, and Rosario v. State, No. SC16-2133, here. See Sentencing.