Entries tagged with “Non-unanimity”
Dec 16, 2024
Florida Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments Challenging Non-Unanimity Sentencing Standard
On December 12, 2024, the Florida Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Michael James Jackson, who is challenging the constitutionality of Florida’s 2023 law that allows for non-unanimous jury death sentences. Mr. Jackson is represented by the ACLU, who argued that the Florida law is unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Ramos v. Louisiana, which struck down non-unanimous criminal convictions. According to the ACLU’s brief,…
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Jul 17, 2023
Application of Florida’s New 8 – 4 Capital Sentencing Scheme “Moves the Goalposts” and Violates Constitutional Prohibition on Ex Post Facto Laws
Florida’s new death sentencing law cannot apply to defendants who committed their crimes before the law was passed earlier this year, Florida Circuit Judge Kevin Abdoney rules. Florida law previously required that a sentencing jury must unanimously vote for death before the court could impose a death sentence, but in April of 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that allows a jury to recommend a death sentence with as few as 8 votes. The ruling in Bryan Riley’s case means that the…
Policy Issues
Mental Illness
,Jun 12, 2023
Duane Owen, Sentenced by Non-Unanimous Jury, is Scheduled to be Florida’s Fourth Execution of the Year
Duane Owen is scheduled to be executed in Florida on June 15, 2023. If it occurs, his execution will be the fourth execution in Florida this year, after a three year pause in executions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Owen was convicted in 1986 of crimes that occurred in…
Facts & Research
Recent Legislative Activity
,New Voices
,Jun 02, 2023
Conservative Commentator Warns of Dangers of Non-Unanimous Death Sentences
Florida’s recent decision to allow death sentences without a unanimous jury recommendation increases the risk of executing an innocent person, according to conservative commentator Christian Schneider (pictured). In a May 25, 2023 column for The National Review, Schneider argues that conservatives should oppose the law that allows a death sentence to be imposed when only eight jurors…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,New Voices
,May 26, 2023
Former Republican and Democratic Governors from Alabama Critique State’s Death Penalty and Express Regret
“[W]e have come over time to see the flaws in our nation’s justice system and to view the state’s death penalty laws in particular as legally and morally troubling,” wrote two former governors of Alabama in an op-ed for the Washington Post. Republican Robert Bentley (pictured, right) and Democrat Don Siegelman (pictured, left) agree that the 146 people whose death sentences were imposed by non-unanimous juries or judicial override should have their sentences commuted. “We missed our…
Facts & Research
Recent Legislative Activity
,Apr 18, 2023
Florida Legislature Rescinds Unanimous-Jury Requirement in Death Sentencing
Florida is poised to become the state with the nation’s lowest threshold for juries to recommend death sentences, after the state legislature passed a bill allowing a judge to impose death if at least eight out of twelve jurors agree. Most states, including Florida, have required a unanimous jury verdict to recommend death. Governor Ron DeSantis (pictured) is expected to sign the bill, following the House’s approval on April 13, 2023. Alabama requires at least 10 jurors to approve a death…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Feb 15, 2023
Thirty-three Years After His Conviction, Former Death Row Prisoner Asks Supreme Court for Justice
Crosley Green was sentenced to death for murder in Florida in 1990 with an all-white non-unanimous jury. He was removed from death row in 2009 and resentenced to life in prison. He has always maintained his innocence and is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his conviction because critical evidence was withheld from…
Facts & Research
Recent Legislative Activity
,Feb 06, 2023
Florida Governor Pushes To Remove Safeguards in Death Penalty Cases
At the urging of Governor Ron DeSantis, bills have been introduced in the Florida House and Senate that would allow death sentences even when the jury cannot come to a unanimous verdict on the proper penalty. The proposed legislation would also permit a presiding judge to override a jury’s recommendation of life and impose a death sentence. Death sentences would be allowed if at least eight jurors agreed, creating the lowest threshold in the nation for the imposition of a death sentence. Only…
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Intellectual Disability
,Race
,Sep 13, 2022
Alabama Court Upholds Fifth Non-Unanimous Death Sentence Imposed on Intellectually Impaired Man Over the Course of Six Penalty Trials for the Same Crime
An Alabama appeals court has upheld a fifth non-unanimous death sentence imposed on a death-row prisoner who has faced six capital sentencing trials for the same offense and was once found to be ineligible for the death penalty because of intellectual…
Policy Issues
Sentencing Alternatives
,May 26, 2022
Judge Rejects Missouri’s First Jury Recommendation of Death in Nine Years, Says Mitigating Evidence Requires Life Sentence for Marvin Rice
A Missouri judge has rejected the state’s first jury recommendation for a death sentence in nine years, and has instead re-sentenced former death-row prisoner Marvin D. Rice (pictured) to life without…
Policy Issues
Sentencing Alternatives
,Dec 12, 2021
After Second Non-Unanimous Jury Verdict, Paul Durousseau Re-Sentenced to Life in Prison in Florida
Florida death-row prisoner Paul Durousseau was re-sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole December 10, 2021, when a second capital sentencing jury reached a non-unanimous sentencing…
Policy Issues
Sentencing Alternatives
,Mar 19, 2020
News Brief — Florida Supreme Court Denies Relief in Two More Jury Non-Unanimity Cases
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 and Lucious…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Sentencing Alternatives
,DPI Reports
,Mar 13, 2020
DPIC Analysis: Exoneration Data Suggests Non-Unanimous Death-Sentencing Statutes Heighten Risk of Wrongful Convictions
Capital sentencing schemes that permit judges to impose a death sentence despite the votes of one or more jurors for life create a heightened risk that an innocent person will be wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, according to a new Death Penalty Information Center analysis of death-row exoneration…
Policy Issues
United States Supreme Court
,Mar 11, 2020
Timothy Hurst, Whose Case Struck Down Florida’s Death-Penalty Statute, Is Resentenced to Life
Former Florida death-row prisoner Timothy Hurst (pictured), whose case led the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Florida’s death-penalty statute in 2016 and spurred the elimination of non-unanimous jury verdicts for death in Florida and Delaware, has been resentenced to life without parole. Hurst was officially removed from Florida’s death row after his capital resentencing jury did not reach a unanimous sentencing recommendation on March 5,…
Policy Issues
Official Misconduct
,Sentencing Data
,Apr 11, 2019
Missouri Supreme Court Grants New Sentencing Trial to Man Who Was Sentenced to Death Despite 11 Jurors’ Votes for Life
The Missouri Supreme Court has ordered a new sentencing trial for Marvin D. Rice (pictured), a former sheriff’s deputy whose trial judge sentenced him to death despite the votes of 11 of his 12 jurors to sentence him to life. On April 2, 2019, the court vacated the death sentence imposed by St. Charles County Judge Kelly Wayne Parker in 2017 under the state’s controversial “hung jury” sentencing provision. Under that law, the trial judge has…