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The death penalty has not proven to be a deterrent to crime and the cases drag on for years, adding to victims' anguish, according to Ayala.

"I do understand that this is a controversial issue but what is not controversial is the evidence that led me to this decision," she said.

But Republican state House members from the region held a hurriedly scheduled news conference Thursday morning and attacked Ayala for failing to pursue the death penalty against Loyd.

The lawmakers accused the prosecutor of failing to do her job, which they maintain requires her to seek the death penalty in certain instances, including cases in which law-enforcement officers were killed.

Rep. Bob Cortes, an Altamonte Springs Republican whose district includes part of Orange County, said he was outraged and called it "a slap in the face" to Loyd's alleged victims and the law-enforcement community at large.

Senate budget chief Jack Latvala, who is mulling a run for governor, went further.

"I think she ought to be thrown out of office," the Clearwater Republican told reporters Thursday.

Bondi, whose office represents the state in death-penalty cases before the Florida Supreme Court, also criticized the local prosecutor.

Ayala's decision "sends a dangerous message" to residents and visitors to the Orlando area and "is a blatant neglect of duty and a shameful failure to follow the law as a constitutionally elected officer," Bondi said in a prepared statement.

But Jacksonville criminal-defense lawyer Bill Sheppard, who has represented defendants in capital cases for nearly five decades, disagreed.

Ayala's position is more in line with a growing national trend by courts, along with some governors and legislatures, that takes a harsher view of the death penalty, Sheppard said in a telephone interview Thursday.

"This prosecutor is reflecting the current American national values relating to the death penalty," he said. "And anybody that's saying she is not upholding the law is not familiar with the law. Prosecutors have prosecutorial discretion, and they exercise it every day. … So what is different about this other than she is going against their values but she is reflecting the current American values."

Even some death-penalty proponents agreed that Ayala enjoys latitude regarding whether to seek death sentences.

"I'm a big supporter of local discretion on filing decisions," Sen. Rob Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican who is a former prosecutor, told The News Service of Florida on Thursday.

Florida voters have the ability to vote for state attorneys every four years, Bradley said.