How far should Florida go to reform death penalty? Lawmakers mull changes after SCOTUS decision
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Florida lawmakers are considering changes in the state’s capital sentencing law after the U.S. Supreme Court found one provision to be unconstitutional last month.
Legislators are debating how far to go in overhauling the law, the New York Times reports.
Florida law requires jurors to make capital-punishment recommendations by a majority vote, without informing the judge of the factual basis for their recommendation. The judge then considers aggravating and mitigating factors, and decides whether a death sentence is warranted. The judge isn’t bound by the jury recommendation. The U.S. Supreme Court said that scheme is unconstitutional because the Sixth Amendment requires jurors, rather than judges, to find each fact necessary to impose the death sentence.
At the very least, Florida will have to change the law so that judges don’t find aggravating factors independent of a jury’s fact-finding, the Times says. But lawmakers are also considering other changes.
The Senate is “leaning toward” a requirement of unanimous decisions by juries for death sentences, the article says. The House, on the other hand, is considering a bill that would require at least nine of 12 jurors to agree for a death-sentence recommendation and all jurors to agree on aggravating factors.
The Villages Daily Sun investigated jury votes in cases of prisoners currently on death row. Jurors were not unanimous in death-sentence recommendations in 75 percent of the cases.
