This page tracks the 145 Florida death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers who won relief under Hurst v. Florida (2016) because 1) their jury rec­om­men­da­tions for death were not unan­i­mous, and 2) their con­vic­tions became final after Ring v. Arizona (2002), which estab­lished that juries must find each aggra­vat­ing fac­tor nec­es­sary to impose death. With the help of attor­ney and researcher Melanie Kalmanson of Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty, DPI has updat­ed this page through January 12, 2026. Professors Michael Radelet and Hannah Gorman con­tributed to ear­li­er iter­a­tions of Hurst resen­tenc­ing research. 

Between March 13, 2017 and April 20, 2023, cap­i­tal tri­als in Florida required a unan­i­mous jury vote to impose the death penal­ty, includ­ing in Hurst resen­tenc­ing hear­ings. However, on April 20, 2023, Florida passed a new cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing stan­dard that autho­rized death by a jury vote of 8 – 4. After exten­sive lit­i­ga­tion, this stan­dard was applied to Hurst resen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings that remained pend­ing as of that date. This page now includes a sec­ond chart track­ing Hurst resen­tenc­ings com­plet­ed under the 8 – 4 stan­dard, includ­ing the jury vote and whether the state waived the death penalty. 

OutcomeNumber
Resentenced to Life or Less93
Resentenced to Death26
Died on Death Row6
Pending20
Total145

Please let us know if you are aware of addi­tion­al Florida cas­es that should be includ­ed on the lists below, or if they should be updat­ed to reflect a new sen­tenc­ing dis­po­si­tion (i.e., resen­tenced to life or resen­tenced to death).

DPI pre­vi­ous­ly deter­mined that twelve addi­tion­al pris­on­ers met the twin cri­te­ria for Hurst described above (157 total). However, these pris­on­ers did not offi­cial­ly have their sen­tences vacat­ed under the Hurst frame­work, for rea­sons includ­ing that they won relief on oth­er grounds, died before a court grant­ed Hurst relief, or were deter­mined by a court not to qual­i­fy. Two are still await­ing a rul­ing on their Hurst eli­gi­bil­i­ty.

Prisoner NameReason Did Not Receive Hurst Relief
Aguirre-Jarquin, ClementeSentence vacat­ed based on new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence; subsequently exonerated
Bright, RaymondSentence vacat­ed due to inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel; sub­se­quent­ly resen­tenced to death
Caraballo, VictorSentence vacat­ed on oth­er grounds; sub­se­quent­ly resen­tenced to life
Davis, William Roger IIIFlorida Supreme Court ruled that he waived Hurst rights
Francis, CarltonHurst eli­gi­bil­i­ty pend­ing due to incompetency
Gosciminski, AndrewDied before court ruled on Hurst relief
Herard, JamesFlorida Supreme Court denied Hurst relief
Poole, MarkFlorida Supreme Court reversed grant of Hurst relief
Silvia, WilliamFlorida Supreme Court reversed grant of Hurst relief
Simpson, JasonState reduced charges; resen­tenced to time served
Wilcox, DariousHurst eli­gi­bil­i­ty pending
Wright, RalphFlorida Supreme Court acquit­ted Wright on appeal due to insuf­fi­cient evi­dence; exonerated

For more back­ground on the Florida leg­isla­tive and court actions relat­ed to the jury una­nim­i­ty issue, see Hurst v. Florida Background.

To track devel­op­ments in Florida death-row appeals that have been decid­ed in light of the state and fed­er­al Hurst deci­sions, see this chart