Federal Judge Rules Florida Death Penalty Procedure Is Unconstitutional
A Florida judge has struck down Florida’s death penalty procedure in which jurors make a capital sentencing recommendation without clear factual findings on aggravating factors.
U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez said the procedure violates Supreme Court precedent in Ring v. Arizona that requires jurors to make findings on factors that can increase sentences. The Miami Herald and NBC News have stories explaining the decision.
Martinez ruled in the case of Paul Evans, convicted in a 1991 murder-for-hire case.
In Florida state courts, 12-person juries can recommend a death sentence by majority vote, and there is no requirement that jurors cite which aggravating factors swayed their decision, the stories say. Evans’ death sentence can’t be constitutional, Martinez wrote, when “there is no evidence to suggest that even a simple majority found the existence of any one aggravating circumstance.”
