---
title: 'News Brief — Florida Supreme Court Denies Relief in Two More Jury Non-Unanimity Cases'
description: 'NEWS (3/19/20): Florida — The Florida Supreme Court has denied new sentencing hearings to two more death-row prisoners who were sentenced to death after…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news-developments-florida-supreme-court-denies-relief-in-two-more-jury-non-unanimity-cases'
section: news
date: '2020-03-19T00:10:00-04:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T15:05:03-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

! **NEWS (3/19/20): Florida — The Florida Supreme Court has denied new sentencing hearings to two more death-row prisoners who were sentenced to death after non-unanimous sentencing recommendations by their juries.** Relying on the court's January 23, 2020 decision in *State v. Poole* that abandoned its requirement of unanimous sentencing recommendations, the court upheld death sentences imposed on **[Grover Reed](https://www.floridasupremecourt.org/content/download/632117/7182792/file/sc19-714.pdf)** and **[Lucious Boyd](https://www.floridasupremecourt.org/content/download/632116/7182780/file/sc18-1589.pdf)**.

Reed would have been denied relief under the court's prior jury unanimity caselaw because his conviction became final before *Ring v. Arizona* was decided in June 2002, the cutoff the court had established for applying its jury unanimity requirement. Boyd was denied a new sentencing hearing under *Poole*'s ruling that a death sentence is constitutional if the jury unanimously voted to convict a defendant of an additional charge that also constituted an aggravating circumstance that would make the defendant eligible for the death penalty.