A District Court pan­el in Florida has endorsed a spe­cial ver­dict form that asks jurors to spec­i­fy what ele­ments of a crime war­rant a death penal­ty. The District Court cer­ti­fied its deci­sion as a mat­ter of great pub­lic impor­tance and asked the Florida Supreme Court to review the rul­ings, not­ing ​“this rul­ing could affect many cas­es that may ulti­mate­ly be reviewed by the Supreme Court.” In the orig­i­nal rul­ing in the cap­i­tal case against Alfredie Steele Jr., Pasco County Judge Lynn Tepper required the jury’s spe­cif­ic deci­sion to bring Florida’s law into com­pli­ance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s rul­ing in Ring v. Arizona. In Ring , the U.S. Supreme Court held that a defen­dant is enti­tled to have the jury, not a judge, decide whether he or she is eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. Some of the states pos­si­bly impact­ed by Ring, includ­ing Florida, have yet to for­mal­ly address how the deci­sion should affect court pro­ce­dures, leav­ing local judges to deliv­er rul­ings based on their own inter­pre­ta­tion of the law. (Miami Daily Business Review, April 29, 2004) See Ring v. Arizona.

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