rockin'robin
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if Supreme Court rules juries must be unanimous
Very few people in Jacksonville have heard of Timothy Hurst. But the Panhandle man may soon be responsible for getting dozens of people from the Jacksonville area off Death Row.
The scenario could happen because of the way Florida sentences convicted killers to death. Hurst, 36 and on Death Row for killing an Escambia County fast-food manager, claims his death sentence violates the Sixth Amendment because only seven of his 12 jurors recommended he get the death penalty. The other five said he should get life without the possibility of parole.
Florida, Delaware and Alabama are the only states that don’t require juries in death-penalty cases to reach a unanimous decision when sentencing someone to death. In Florida a jury must unanimously vote to convict someone of first-degree murder and then decides whether to recommend death after a separate
sentencing hearing.
Slideshow: Court ruling could spell life or death for these Northeast Florida Death Row inmates
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider Hurst’s case. Oral arguments are expected to occur this year with a ruling likely in the spring of 2016.
Jacksonville-area Public Defender Matt Shirk said he believes in the death penalty, but not the way Florida practices it. He hopes the Supreme Court throws out Hurst’s death sentence.
“In this state we’re just getting it wrong when we don’t require a unanimous jury verdict,” Shirk said.
Seventy-five people are on Death Row for murders committed in Duval, Clay, Nassau, Putnam or St. Johns counties. Only 13 got sentenced to death after a jury unanimously recommended it.
That means 62 people on Death Row from Northeast Florida could have their death sentences thrown out if the Supreme Court rules in Hurst’s favor. People who could be impacted include Rasheem Dubose, convicted of the murder of 8-year-old Dreshawna Davis; Paul Durousseau for the murder of Tyresa Mack; and Alan Wade, Tiffany Cole and Michael James Jackson for the robbery, kidnapping and murders of Carol and Reggie Sumner.
RING VS. ARIZONA
Ronald Clark, 47, knows Hurst very well. Hurst lives down the hall from him on Florida’s Death Row. There since 1991 for the murder of Ronald Willis in Jacksonville, Clark sees Hurst as perhaps his best chance to die of natural causes. The jury that convicted Clark recommended death on an 11-1 vote.
“I think this case is way overdue,” Clark said in a letter to the Times-Union. “Florida, in ignoring the courts ruling in Ring vs. Arizona basically was slapping the U.S. Supreme Court in the face, saying it’s our way or the highway, we run things down here in the dirty South, not you do-gooders in Washington.”
Slideshow: Meet Duval County’s Death Row inmates
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Network, said death-penalty opponents have been waiting a long time for a case like Hurst’s. In fact they’ve been waiting since 2002.
That was the year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ring vs. Arizona that a jury — not a judge — must make the factual findings required to sentence someone to death.
The 7-2 majority opinion, written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said juries must find beyond a reasonable doubt each factor considered in determining whether a death sentence should be imposed.
To involve jurors any less, she said, violated defendants’ Sixth-Amendment right to a trial by jury.
Read more.....
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/...preme-court-rules-juries#.VTxUuNcF-Go.twitter
Very few people in Jacksonville have heard of Timothy Hurst. But the Panhandle man may soon be responsible for getting dozens of people from the Jacksonville area off Death Row.
The scenario could happen because of the way Florida sentences convicted killers to death. Hurst, 36 and on Death Row for killing an Escambia County fast-food manager, claims his death sentence violates the Sixth Amendment because only seven of his 12 jurors recommended he get the death penalty. The other five said he should get life without the possibility of parole.
Florida, Delaware and Alabama are the only states that don’t require juries in death-penalty cases to reach a unanimous decision when sentencing someone to death. In Florida a jury must unanimously vote to convict someone of first-degree murder and then decides whether to recommend death after a separate
sentencing hearing.
Slideshow: Court ruling could spell life or death for these Northeast Florida Death Row inmates
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider Hurst’s case. Oral arguments are expected to occur this year with a ruling likely in the spring of 2016.
Jacksonville-area Public Defender Matt Shirk said he believes in the death penalty, but not the way Florida practices it. He hopes the Supreme Court throws out Hurst’s death sentence.
“In this state we’re just getting it wrong when we don’t require a unanimous jury verdict,” Shirk said.
Seventy-five people are on Death Row for murders committed in Duval, Clay, Nassau, Putnam or St. Johns counties. Only 13 got sentenced to death after a jury unanimously recommended it.
That means 62 people on Death Row from Northeast Florida could have their death sentences thrown out if the Supreme Court rules in Hurst’s favor. People who could be impacted include Rasheem Dubose, convicted of the murder of 8-year-old Dreshawna Davis; Paul Durousseau for the murder of Tyresa Mack; and Alan Wade, Tiffany Cole and Michael James Jackson for the robbery, kidnapping and murders of Carol and Reggie Sumner.
RING VS. ARIZONA
Ronald Clark, 47, knows Hurst very well. Hurst lives down the hall from him on Florida’s Death Row. There since 1991 for the murder of Ronald Willis in Jacksonville, Clark sees Hurst as perhaps his best chance to die of natural causes. The jury that convicted Clark recommended death on an 11-1 vote.
“I think this case is way overdue,” Clark said in a letter to the Times-Union. “Florida, in ignoring the courts ruling in Ring vs. Arizona basically was slapping the U.S. Supreme Court in the face, saying it’s our way or the highway, we run things down here in the dirty South, not you do-gooders in Washington.”
Slideshow: Meet Duval County’s Death Row inmates
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Network, said death-penalty opponents have been waiting a long time for a case like Hurst’s. In fact they’ve been waiting since 2002.
That was the year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ring vs. Arizona that a jury — not a judge — must make the factual findings required to sentence someone to death.
The 7-2 majority opinion, written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said juries must find beyond a reasonable doubt each factor considered in determining whether a death sentence should be imposed.
To involve jurors any less, she said, violated defendants’ Sixth-Amendment right to a trial by jury.
Read more.....
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/...preme-court-rules-juries#.VTxUuNcF-Go.twitter
