The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Florida’s system for sentencing people to death is unconstitutional.
In the 8-1 ruling, the highest court in the United States said the way the death penalty is imposed in Florida gives too much power to judges and not enough to juries.
The decision stems from the case of Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of the 1998 stabbing murder of his manager at a Popeye’s Fried Chicken restaurant in Pensacola, Fla. Though a jury was divided 7-5, a judge imposed the capital sentence.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court, saying a jury’s “mere recommendation is not enough” and that the court was overruling previous decisions upholding Florida’s sentencing process.
“The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death,” Sotomayor wrote. Justice Samuel Alito dissented, writing “under the Florida system, the jury plays the critically important role.”
The justices sent the case back to the Florida Supreme Court, which it will determine if the error in sentencing Hurst to death was harmless or if he should get a new sentencing hearing.
In Florida, judges can impose the death penalty even if the jury has not ruled unanimously or agreed on any aggravating circumstances. The judge can also weigh other factors independently, meaning the jury could base its decision on one particular aggravating factor, but a judge could do so based on a different factor never considered by the jury.
In Hurst’s case, prosecutors asked the jury to consider two aggravating factors: that the murder was committed during a robbery and that it was “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel,” something that Florida juries are required to weigh when they are deciding for or against the death sentence. Though the two factors do warrant a death sentence in Florida, the 7-5 ruling by the jury did not reveal if a clear majority of the jurors voted for either aggravating factor separately.
Florida’s solicitor general, Allen Windsor, had argued in court that the separate system of judges and juries in the death penalty process offers more protection for capital defendants.
Sotomayor argued the process actually hurt Hurst, as it was unclear the jury’s decision regarding the aggravating factors required for a death sentence.
“The maximum punishment Timothy Hurst could have received without any judge-made findings was life in prison without parole,” she said.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that a defendant has the right to have a jury decide whether the circumstances of a crime warrant a sentence of death.
Florida joins Alabama and Delaware as the only three states that do not require a unanimous jury verdict when sentencing someone to death.
Read the full Supreme Court decision here.
