Entries tagged with “Timothy Hurst”
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Sentencing Data
,United States Supreme Court
,Jan 12, 2016
U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down Florida’s Death Sentencing Scheme
In an 8 – 1 decision in Hurst v. Florida released on January 12, the U.S. Supreme Court found Florida’s capital sentencing scheme in violation of the 6th Amendment, which guarantees the right to trial by jury. “The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the opinion of the Court. The jury and judge in Hurst’s case followed Florida’s statutory sentencing procedure, which…