Entries tagged with “Hurst v. Florida”
Jan 12, 2026
Marking a Decade Since Hurst v. Florida
Today is the ten-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Hurst v. Florida. Heralded as a watershed ruling for capital defendants, Hurst reaffirmed the principle that the jury alone must find the facts necessary to condemn a person to die — implicating the death sentences of hundreds of prisoners across three states. The Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury…
Issues
Sep 21, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of September 14, 2020
NEWS (9/17/20) — Florida: The Florida Supreme Court has denied post-conviction relief to Ken Lott, retroactively applying its new rule that a death sentence imposed under the state’s unconstitutional judicial fact-finding statute did not violate Lott’s right to a jury trial because the jury had unanimously found an aggravating circumstance. The court held that Lott’s Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial in his capital sentencing proceeding extended only to the determination of whether the…
Issues
Jun 13, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of June 8, 2020
NEWS (6/11/20) — Florida: The Florida Supreme Court applied new cases that retroactively changed the law regarding claims of intellectual disability and the unconstitutionality of death sentences imposed after non-unanimous jury votes for death to uphold the death sentences imposed on Alphonso Cave and Gary Lawrence. Cave had been unconstitutionally sentenced to death three different times. Twice his death sentence had been overturned. He was sentenced to death a third time after a…
Issues
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, 2020. The resentencing marked the third time…
Issues
Oct 09, 2019
Supreme Court Opens 2019 – 2020 Term with Consideration of Death Penalty Cases
The 2019 – 2020 U.S. Supreme Court term opened on October 7 with the Court declining to review challenges to death-penalty court decisions from a number of states and with the Court hearing argument in a Kansas death-penalty case raising constitutional questions about a defendant’s right to present an insanity defense. Among the more notable death penalty decisions, the Court denied a petition from an Alabama prisoner whose death sentence resulted in a judge’s override of a jury’s life verdict…
Issues
Nov 29, 2016
Florida Supreme Court Orders Re-Sentencing, Suggesting Hurst May Affect Many Florida Cases
On November 23, the Florida Supreme Court overturned the death sentence imposed by a judge on Richard Franklin after his jury split 9 – 3 in recommending he receive the death penalty for a 2012 murder. “In light of the non-unanimous jury recommendation to impose a death sentence,” the court found that the death sentence violated Franklin’s right to have a unanimous jury determination of all facts necessary to impose a death penalty and that the violation could not be excused as harmless. The…
Issues
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 requires only an “advisory…