Florida Supreme Court upholds death sentence handed down by non-unanimous jury

Florida’s Supreme Court has upheld a state law allowing non-unanimous juries to sentence people to death, setting one of the lowest bars for capital punishment in the country, at a time when executions in the state are on the rise nationally.

In a ruling issued Thursday, the court affirmed a 2023 law that eliminated the requirement for a unanimous jury in death sentences, rejecting arguments by death row inmates Michael Hunt and michael jackson That his sentence is unconstitutional.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Florida law allows the death penalty with at least an 8-4 jury recommendation in favor of execution, the lowest standard in the country. Alabama It is the only other state to allow the death penalty to be imposed by a non-unanimous jury, with a slightly higher threshold of 10-2.

Florida lawmakers have passed a non-unanimous jury verdict in response to a verdict that spared the lives of a school shooter who killed 17 people. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School In parklandFlorida.

Florida’s death penalty requirements have changed repeatedly in recent years, following legal challenges and changes in the state high court, where five of the seven judges were appointed by Republican governors. Ron DeSantis,

For decades, Florida did not require unanimity in capital punishment, allowing a judge to impose the death penalty unless a majority of jurors were in favor of the penalty. But in 2016 the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the state’s system, saying it allowed judges too much discretion.

The state Legislature then passed a bill requiring a 10-2 jury recommendation, but the state Supreme Court at the time said such recommendations must be unanimous, leading lawmakers in 2017 to require a unanimous jury.

Three years later, the state Supreme Court, with new conservative jurists appointed by DeSantis, vacated his earlier decision and ruled that a death recommendation did not need to be unanimous.

In recent years, the state has also expanded which crimes can carry the death penalty, including those convicted of child rape, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned the death penalty in such cases.

Meanwhile, Florida’s record-breaking string of executions continues under DeSantis, with another man scheduled to be executed Thursday evening, which will be the state’s 19th execution of 2025.

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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.