Posted: 5:31 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, 2016
TALLAHASSEE — In an explosive pair of rulings Friday, the Florida Supreme Court threw out the state’s existing death penalty sentencing law, likely halting executions indefinitely in a state with nearly 400 Death Row inmates.
In the 5-2 ruling, justices said that juries must unanimously recommend death sentences before a judge can impose them. In the case, justices vacated the death sentence of Timothy Lee Hurst, convicted of killing a co-worker at a Pensacola fast-food restaurant in 1998.
In a separate decision involving Larry Darnell Perry, accused of killing his three-month-old son in Central Florida in 2013, justices also blocked the law from being used in ongoing prosecutions – essentially freezing the death penalty in the state.
Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, said the decisions cloud the future of capital punishment in Florida, second only to California in the number of inmates awaiting execution.
“This the biggest challenge to capital punishment in Florida in a generation,” Dunham said. “It’s a real dilemma for the Legislature, the courts, everybody involved.”...
Read more at:
http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/florida-supreme-court-overturns-death-penalty-law-/nsq9x/
