Supreme Court Strikes Down Florida Death Penalty Law

NBC News ^ | January 12, 2016 | Pete Williams

[Zakeet]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declared Florida's death penalty law unconstitutional.

Florida requires the trial judge, not the jury to make the critical findings necessary to impose the death penalty.

[Zakeet]

... the unelected libtards just said, "empty them out"

[Buckeye McFrog]

Antonin Scalia recently gave a speech in which he said the majority was preparing to do away with the death penalty altogether.

Apparently he is right.

[kevkrom]

It was 8-1, Alito dissenting. That’s a pretty overwhelming majority, so it might be simpler to assume that FL’s death penalty is flawed rather than assume there are judicial hijinks going on.

[darkangel82]

That’s going to cause a mess for 350 or so cases in FL. But the court appears to have ruled correctly.

[rollo tomasi]

Florida law concerning who has the authority (Judge in this case) to condemn a convicted murderer was decreed unconstitutional; not the death penalty “itself”. Florida legislature will just “correct” the law/procedural impasse.

[Red Badger]

Change the law and re-sentence from juries...................

[Buckeye McFrog]

I see. The fact remains that Scalia did make those remarks (though he apparently joined the majority in this case).

[Red Badger]

Yes, it will be a mess, but juries I would think would be much more likely to hand down harsher sentences than the possibility of liberal judges giving life sentences..................

[BushCountry]

He sliced and diced her with a box cutter, yet the Supremes could not find any extenuating circumstances to warrant death.

Harrisons body was bound and gagged with black electrical tape. The body had over sixty incised slash and stab wounds, all of which were consistent with having been made by a box cutter, which was found by the back door of the restaurant.

[rollo tomasi]

Funny how most of the activists (Alito was consistent in this case due to his nature in favoring law enforcement) on the court took a strict interpretation of the 6th Amendment. The enumeration/penumbra/yada, yada, yada...would conclude a jury did rule and recommended the death as a penalty, lol. Thus, activism is just a begrudging bias against the Constitution.

[Vigilanteman]

What would prevent the legislature from passing a law simply selecting a random 7 of the original 12 jurors to convene at the original court house of conviction and have the convict and his lawyer attend by closed circuit to present their case on why the conviction should be commuted to life imprisonment or whatever? Or if the original death penalty should be upheld?

It should take an afternoon, tops.

Or just put the convicts in with the general prison population and pass the word that any "accidental" shankings won't get more than a cameo investigation.

[SecondAmendment]

> ... but juries I would think would be much more likely to hand down harsher sentences ...

Not neccessarily, it all depends on the jury selection (I know this from first hand experience ).

[henkster]

While the jury has to make all the factual findings to support a death penalty, this has been integral in Supreme Court rulings for many years.

Why did it take so long to raise the issue regarding Florida’s statute?

[Sgt_Schultze]

The death penalty is clearly and specifically provided for in the Constitution. What rationale does Scalia believe the majority would use to invalidate it?

[Red Badger]

The OJ Jury being an exception......................

[SeaHawkFan]

Resentencing would be a vitually impossible task. At this point, it would be better just to convert the death sentences to life without possibility of parole.

[maxwellsmart_agent]

After the jury has done its job, the judge is the one who should impose the sentence. I don’t know where we lost that concept.

[dsrtsage]

If it is unconstitutional, then howcome none of the people who wrote the constitution ever seeked to eliminate it? It was a very common punishment at the time, afterall.