[Bouncr: 3v394] Supreme Court Strikes Down Florida "Jury Recommendation" Death

Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, the Supreme Court struck down Florida's death sentencing scheme as unconstitutional because the state relied on "a judge's factfinding" and not "a jury's verdict" to sentence a person to death.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the court's opinion, in which she was joined by all of her colleagues but two. One, Justice Stephen Breyer, joined in the judgment of the court that Florida's scheme is unconstitutional, but for different reasons.

"The Sixth Amendment protects a defendant's right to an impartial jury. This right required Florida to base Timothy Hurst's death sentence on a jury's verdict, not a judge's factfinding," Sotomayor wrote. "Florida's sentencing scheme, which required the judge alone to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance, is therefore unconstitutional."

Without that finding of an aggravating circumstance, there could be no death sentence imposed. As such, Sotomayor reasoned, the court's prior opinions required a jury to make that determination.

The opinion was an application, for the most part, of a 2002 decision of the Supreme Court, Ring v. Arizona, in which the court held that Arizona's law allowing a sentencing judge, sitting without a jury, to find the aggravating factors necessary to impose the death penalty.

Breyer, who disagreed with the reasoning of Ring, continued in his opinion on Tuesday to note his disagreement with that earlier decision.

Justice Samuel Alito was the sole dissenting justice, arguing that "the jury plays a critically important role" in the Florida system, sufficient for what Ring requires under the Sixth Amendment's right to a jury trial.

via BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1Zq9Mg9

Put the internet to work for you.

Turn off or edit this Recipe