The U.S. Supreme Court determined Tuesday that Florida's 40-year system of allowing judges rather than juries to decide whether to sentence people to death is unconstitutional because it gives them too much power.
In an 8-1 ruling, with only Justice Samuel Alito dissenting, SCOTUS determined that the sentencing procedure is flawed because juries don't make a final decision but instead only play an advisory role while the judge can reach a different decision, according to the Associated Press.
"We hold this sentencing scheme unconstitutional," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. "The 6th Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death. A jury's mere recommendation is not enough."
The decision comes following a challenge filed by death row inmate Timothy Lee Hurst, 37, who was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of Popeye's restaurant co-worker Cynthia Harrison.
Under Florida law, the state requires juries in capital sentencing hearings to weigh factors for and against imposing a death sentence. However, judges aren't bound by those findings and can reach a different decision, even incorporating other factors that weren't under consideration. In other words, a jury could base its decision on one factor, but a judge could then rely on a different one.
This is what played out in Hurst's case. The jury was asked to consider two aggravating factors: the murder was committed during a robbery and it was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel." However, at the time, Florida law didn't require the jury to say how it voted on each factor. So even though a jury divided 7-5 recommended a death sentence for Hurst, the judge, unaware of the distribution of the votes on each factor, conducted a separate fact-finding process and handed down the death sentence, rendering the jury's decision advisory, according to USA Today.
The decision could open the door to other sentencing challenges from many of Florida's death row inmates. It could also lead to other legal challenges in Alabama and Delaware, the only other two states that have similar death sentencing procedures, said Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, according to CNN.
"This shows that the Supreme Court continues to apply close scrutiny to the death penalty. I think it's really a harbinger of the day coming when the Supreme Court is going to strike it down," she said.
