In a recent arti­cle in the Atlantic, Marc Bookman com­pared the path through the jus­tice sys­tem of two co-defen­dants sen­tenced to death in Florida after com­mit­ting mur­der in 1977. Beauford White was elec­tro­cut­ed in 1987, despite his tri­al jury vot­ing 12 – 0 for a life sen­tence. The tri­al judge over­rode that rec­om­men­da­tion and imposed death. White’s co-defen­dant, John Ferguson, lived for anoth­er 26 years before being exe­cut­ed in 2013. His jury vot­ed 12 – 0 for death. The fore­man of White’s jury lat­er said, ​“We vot­ed for life because we did not see a shred of evi­dence indi­cat­ing that White him­self actu­al­ly took part in the killing.” Two dis­sent­ing U.S. Supreme Court Justices called White’s exe­cu­tion ​“inex­cus­able.” Ferguson, on the oth­er hand, had been diag­nosed with schiz­o­phre­nia by sev­en dif­fer­ent doc­tors before the mur­der that sent him to death row, but courts even­tu­al­ly found him com­pe­tent enough to be exe­cut­ed. The cas­es illus­trate the wide dis­par­i­ties in the appli­ca­tion of the death penalty.

Florida is one of only three states that allows judges to over­ride jury rec­om­men­da­tions for life sentences.

(M. Bookman, ​“Executed Against the Judgment of 12 Jurors,” The Atlantic, January 6, 2013). See Arbitrariness and Mental Illness.

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