More than 200 inmates on Florida’s death row were given unconstitutional death sentences and are thus entitled to be resentenced, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
That includes everyone sentenced after 2002 or whose appeals were not final by that year. Florida has about 400 death row inmates.
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The decision by the Florida Supreme Court came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this year in Hurst v. Florida that the state’s death penalty scheme was unconstitutional. In an 8-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said in January Florida’s death penalty scheme gave too much power to judges to impose a death penalty, instead of rightfully to jurors.
However, the high court left it to the Florida Supreme Court to decide if its ruling should apply retroactively.
In response, the Florida court decided anyone sentenced since 2002 is entitled to resentencing relief. It based that decision on a similar Supreme Court case related to death penalty laws in Arizona.
Florida’s legislature rewrote its sentencing laws in March as a result of the Supreme Court ruling, so that jurors must unanimously agree that a case involves at least one aggravating circumstance in order to warrant a death sentence. The new law also required 10 instead of the previous seven jurors to approve a death sentence.
The latest decision by the Florida Supreme Court is expected to tie up trial courts across the state as eligible death row inmates ask to be resentenced.
