The U.S. Supreme Court 8-1 ruling in the Hurst case in January 2016 found that Florida’s system of allowing judges to find the facts necessary to impose the death penalty was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury.
That decision prompted the state Supreme Court to put an indefinite hold on two executions scheduled by Scott and spurred the Legislature last year to hurriedly pass a measure aimed at addressing the constitutional problems. The law also required at least 10 jurors — instead of the old law’s requirement of a simple majority of jurors — to recommend death.
Of the nearly three dozen states with the death penalty, Florida was then one of only three — including Delaware and Alabama — that did not require unanimous jury recommendations for the sentence. Delaware has since abandoned the death penalty.
The Florida Supreme Court last fall struck down the revised statute, saying that, as in every other type of case, unanimous jury recommendations are required in death-penalty sentencing.
