• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Economic Development Council
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • Fourth Amendment
    • First Amendment
    • Privacy
    • Second Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Third Amendment
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
    • 14th Amendment
    • Civil Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Flagler Youth Orchestra
    • Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
    • Palm Coast Arts Foundation
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2022
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

Florida’s Death Penalty On Hold: Supreme Court Halts Trial Pending Legislative Change

October 28, 2016 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

The van used to carry bodies out of Starke prison after they've been executed, above, gets a rest. (© FlaglerLive)
The van used to carry bodies out of Starke prison after they’ve been executed, above, gets a rest. (© FlaglerLive)

The Florida Supreme Court on Friday stopped a Clearwater judge from proceeding with a death penalty case, signaling that courts might not be able to move forward with capital trials until the Legislature changes a law that justices earlier this month struck down as unconstitutional.


In the tersely-worded, 5-2 decision Friday, the court granted a request by lawyers for convicted murderer Patrick Albert Evans to stop Judge Joseph Bulone from moving forward with a trial slated to begin Monday. Justices Charles Canady and Ricky Polston dissented without comment.

Friday’s ruling is the strongest indicator yet that Florida’s death penalty remains in flux in the aftermath of a pair of opinions issued by state’s high court on Oct. 14. Those decisions found that a statute passed in March in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case known as Hurst v. Florida was unconstitutional “because it requires that only 10 jurors recommend death as opposed to the constitutionally required unanimous, 12-member jury.”

The majority in the decision in one of the cases, involving Death Row inmate Larry Darnell Perry, found that the law was unconstitutional because it did not require unanimous jury recommendations and “cannot be applied to pending prosecutions.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi last week asked the Supreme Court to “clarify” their rulings in the Perry and Hurst cases, maintaining that trials already underway should be allowed to move forward.

In Evans’ case, Bulone issued an order Wednesday saying he would begin to empanel a death-qualified jury on Monday and, if Evans is found guilty of first-degree murder, “proceed to a penalty phase consistent with” the Oct. 14 Supreme Court decisions.

“I don’t think it would be all that hard to draft those (jury) instructions. I don’t think it would be all that hard to come up with a verdict form,” the judge told lawyers on Oct. 20, according to his order.

Bulone’s decision prompted Evans’ lawyers to immediately ask the Supreme Court to intervene, warning of a “jurisprudential quagmire” if the court allowed the case to go forward “without appropriate guidance.”

“It is not a court’s job to write the law,” wrote Allison Ferber Miller and Jane McNeil, lawyers in the Sixth Judicial Circuit Public Defender’s office, and Pete Mills, an assistant public defender in the Eighth Judicial Circuit, in the 137-page motion filed Wednesday. Mills is chairman of the Florida Public Defender Association’s death penalty steering committee.

“There are 67 counties in the state of Florida, 20 judicial circuits and literally hundreds of judges. It simply cannot be this court’s intent for each circuit judge to write his own law according to that judge’s interpretation of the court’s decisions in Perry and Hurst,” Evans’ lawyers wrote.

In Friday’s order, the Supreme Court majority wrote that Evans’ petition “demonstrates a preliminary basis for relief,” and gave prosecutors until Nov. 14 to show why the petition should not be granted. Evans’ lawyers have until Nov. 28 to respond. The order put a stay on the circuit court proceedings.

In her request for clarification, Bondi’s lawyers argued that death penalty prosecutions can continue without a change in the law, so long as trial courts require unanimous jury recommendations.

But Evans’ lawyers argued this week that the Florida Supreme Court majority “said it could not rewrite the act to make it constitutional.”

“If that was what the court thought it could do in a constitutional manner, it could have done so. Instead, the court said the act as a whole could NOT be applied to pending prosecutions,” they wrote.

Prosecutors, judges, defense lawyers and lawmakers are divided about whether death penalty prosecutions should proceed. An Ocala judge last week put on hold the penalty portion of a murder trial, saying the court needed direction from the Legislature before proceeding.

Some judges and prosecutors have proposed moving forward with the guilt phases of cases in which prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, and holding off on the penalty portions of trials until the law is rewritten.

But defense lawyers maintain that empanelling new juries to handle sentencing would result in an expensive and prolonged quagmire that could be even more problematic.

Mills said in a telephone interview that Friday’s order could have far-reaching implications, especially for trials in which judges intend to proceed to the penalty phase before the statute is amended.

“If the court doesn’t formulate a remedy on its own, which they have said in the past they would not do, it is now up to the Legislature to fix the statute that the court found to be unconstitutional,” he said.

The state’s death penalty has been in limbo since January, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Florida’s sentencing system was unconstitutional because it gave too much power to judges, instead of juries. Following that decision, the Florida Supreme Court indefinitely put on hold two executions, which are still pending.

Of the 31 states with the death penalty, Florida is one of just three — including Alabama and Delaware — that have not required unanimous jury recommendations for death to be imposed. Delaware’s high court has halted that state’s death penalty following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in January in the Hurst case.

The Hurst ruling did not address the issue of unanimity, which became a flashpoint during this year’s legislative session as Florida lawmakers sought to repair the state’s death penalty sentencing process to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Echoing concerns expressed by other defense lawyers, Evans’ attorneys argued that allowing individual judges to craft their own rules or procedures in death sentences would be catastrophic.

“To allow for such chaos is the essence of what the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution aims to prevent: the arbitrary and capricious application of the death penalty,” lawyers for Evans wrote on Wednesday. “This court has been suggesting to the Florida Legislature for years that the Florida death penalty statutes need to be changed. The Legislature’s unwillingness to act does not grant the courts the authority to write the laws.”

–Dara Kam, News Service of Florida

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
You and your neighbors collectively read our articles about 25,000 times each day (that's not a typo) with up to 65,000 daily reads during emergencies like hurricanes. Flagler County residents rely on FlaglerLive for essential, bold and analytical journalism that cannot be found anywhere else. But we depend on your support. Please join our December fund drive! If you donate the cost of a scoop of ice cream, you will be helping us continue to provide comprehensive local news and honest, serious journalism for our community. If you can donate more or become a monthly donor, even better. Donations are tax deductible since FlaglerLive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit news organization. Donate by clicking anywhere in this box. Think of it as buying a scoop, in every sense of the term!  
All donors' identities are kept confidential and anonymous.
   

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. IndoRepubliCrat says

    November 7, 2016 at 9:51 am

    Bring Back Old Sparky!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Advertisers

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents
  • WNZF Creekside Festival

Recent Comments

  • Richard on No Plans Yet for Florida Health Departments to Offer New Covid Vaccine Even as It Rolls Out in Other States
  • Pat on No Plans Yet for Florida Health Departments to Offer New Covid Vaccine Even as It Rolls Out in Other States
  • PeachesMcGee on Taylor Manjarres, 20, Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Her Role in Shooting Death of Zaire Roberts
  • jeffery c. seib on ‘No Smoke and Mirrors’: New Baler Helps Flagler Beach Recycle 4 Tons of Cardboard a Week
  • What Else Is New on Moms for Liberty: Joyful Warriors or Anti-Government Conspiracists?
  • Steve on Taylor Manjarres, 20, Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Her Role in Shooting Death of Zaire Roberts
  • Joy Cook on Rezoning Enabling Up to 850 Homes in Seminole Woods Causes Sharp Debate Before Palm Coast Approval
  • Marion on Taylor Manjarres, 20, Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Her Role in Shooting Death of Zaire Roberts
  • Atbp on Time to Stop Using Individuality-Obliterating Acronyms Like BIPOC
  • Laurel on Michael Benkert, on the Run for 19 Days Since Flagler Beach Trailer Park Manhunt, Is Arrested
  • Laurel on At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest. 
  • Bill on At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest. 
  • Say no to Facists on How Biases Against Black-Sounding First Names Lead to Job Discrimination
  • Laurel on DeSantis Will Debate Gavin Newsom in Georgia in November
  • Foresee on Time to Stop Using Individuality-Obliterating Acronyms Like BIPOC
  • Gene on Montessori School Owner Kerri Huckabee, 54, Arrested on 3 Felonies in Dispute with Flagler Beach Neighbors

Log in