Entries tagged with “Jury Instructions”
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…
Jun 27, 2023
Florida’s New Non-Unanimous Capital Sentencing Law Faces Retroactivity Challenge in State Supreme Court
The resentencing hearings of several death-sentenced men in Florida came to an abrupt halt last week as the Florida Supreme Court considers the effect of the state’s new capital sentencing law. Earlier this year, the Florida legislature passed a new capital sentencing law to allow juries to impose a death sentence if at least 8 out of 12 jurors vote in favor. But several death row defendants who were scheduled to be resentenced objected that the new law unfairly made their chances of being…
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Jan 26, 2022
Kansas Supreme Court Rules that Death Penalty Does Not Violate State Constitution’s ‘Inalienable’ Right to Life
The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the state’s death penalty against two death-row prisoners’ challenges that capital punishment violates the “inalienable” right to life enshrined in the Kansas state…