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 6^th 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 sen­tence” from a jury. Florida does not require the jury to spec­i­fy the fac­tu­al basis of its sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tion. The sen­tenc­ing judge must give ​“great weight” to the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion, but only the judge ever pro­vides writ­ten rea­sons why a case is eli­gi­ble for a death sen­tence. The Court based its deci­sion large­ly on Ring v. Arizona, a 2002 deci­sion in which it struck down Arizona’s sen­tenc­ing scheme because a judge, rather than a jury, deter­mined the facts nec­es­sary to impose a death sen­tence. While Florida’s pro­ce­dure adds the advi­so­ry rec­om­men­da­tion that Arizona’s lacked, the Court found the dis­tinc­tion, ​“imma­te­r­i­al.” ​“As with Timothy Ring, the max­i­mum pun­ish­ment Timothy Hurst could have received with­out any judge-made find­ings was life in prison with­out parole. As with Ring, a judge increased Hurst’s autho­rized pun­ish­ment based on her own factfind­ing. In light of Ring, we hold that Hurst’s sen­tence vio­lates the Sixth Amendment.” 

Justice Alito dis­sent­ed, cit­ing past deci­sions uphold­ing Florida’s death penal­ty statute. Justice Breyer con­curred with the Court’s deci­sion, but would find that the Eighth Amendment requires that a jury deter­mine the actu­al sen­tence, not just the facts that make a per­son eli­gi­ble for death.

(R. Barnes, ​“Supreme Court finds Florida’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment process uncon­sti­tu­tion­al,” Washington Post, January 12, 2016). Read the Court’s deci­sion in Hurst v. Florida. See Sentencing and U.S. Supreme Court.