Florida Governor Rick Scott issued a series of exec­u­tive orders on April 3 remov­ing local­ly elect­ed 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Aramis Ayala (pic­tured) from 21 first-degree mur­der cas­es and replac­ing her with 5th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Brad King. The removal comes two weeks after Ayala announced a pol­i­cy that her office would not pur­sue the death penal­ty in mur­der pros­e­cu­tions. The cas­es include a num­ber of poten­tial cap­i­tal resen­tenc­ings result­ing from the Florida Supreme Court’s 2016 deci­sion declar­ing non-unan­i­mous death sen­tences to be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Ayala, a Democrat whose dis­trict encom­pass­es Orange and Osceola Counties in and around Orlando, said on March 16 that, after con­duct­ing ​“an evi­dence-based review” of the issue, she had con­clud­ed that seek­ing the death penal­ty was not cost-effec­tive and ​“is not in the best inter­ests of this com­mu­ni­ty or in the best inter­ests of jus­tice.” Ayala is the only African-American elect­ed pros­e­cu­tor in Florida. Gov. Scott pre­vi­ous­ly removed her from the high-pro­file tri­al of Markeith Loyd, a defen­dant accused of killing his preg­nant ex-girl­friend and an Orlando police offi­cer, also appoint­ing King to han­dle that case. That deci­sion prompt­ed oppo­si­tion from the Florida Legislative Black Caucus and the vic­tim’s par­ents. Democratic state Rep. Sean Shaw of Tampa called Scott’s action in the 21 cas­es a ​“gross abuse of his pow­er.” Louis Virelli, a law pro­fes­sor at Stetson University, warned that Gov. Scott’s actions set a dan­ger­ous prece­dent, say­ing, ​“this opens the door for gov­er­nors of all polit­i­cal par­ties to cher­ry-pick cas­es away from pros­e­cu­tors.” Ayala has hired Roy L. Austin, Jr., a for­mer civ­il rights attor­ney at the U.S. Department of Justice, to chal­lenge Scott’s author­i­ty to issue the exec­u­tive orders. Ayala’s spokesper­son, Eryka Washington, said Scott had not noti­fied the State Attorney that he was issu­ing the exec­u­tive orders and that Ayala first learned of the orders from the media. ​“Ms. Ayala remains stead­fast in her posi­tion that the Governor is abus­ing his author­i­ty and has com­pro­mised the inde­pen­dence and integri­ty of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem,” Washington said. Orange and Osceola Counties imposed a total of one death sen­tence from 2012 – 2016. Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion, and Sumpter Counties — the pre­dom­i­nant­ly Republican coun­ties that make up the judi­cial cir­cuit in which State Attorney King was elect­ed — imposed six death sen­tences dur­ing that period.

(D. Elliott, ​“Florida Governor Pulls Murder Cases From Prosecutor Who Shuns Death Penalty,” NPR, April 3, 2017; G. Rohrer, R. Stutzman, and G. T. Lotan, ​“Gov. Rick Scott reas­signs 21 mur­der cas­es, cit­ing Aramis Ayala’s death penal­ty stance,” Orlando Sentinel, April 3, 2017.) Read the Executive Orders issued by Governor Scott here. See Arbitrariness and Sentencing.

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