Ayala files lawsuit against Scott
She argues removal from capital cases dilutes power of voters, deprives her of due process
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Gov. Rick Scott, who reassigned 23 of her capital cases to another prosecutor who says he will seek the death penalty — something she’s not willing to do.
“The governor did not take this drastic step because of any misconduct on Ayala’s part, but simply because he disagreed with her reasoned prosecutorial determination not to seek the death penalty under current circumstances,” Ayala’s attorney, Roy Austin, wrote in the complaint.
The lawsuit names as defendants Scott and the prosecutor he chose to replace Ayala in the death penalty cases — State Attorney Brad King, whose district includes Marion and Lake counties. Ayala also filed a motion with the Florida Supreme Court, asking the court to determine Please turn to LAWSUIT, A7
who has authority over the cases. She also asked the court to recognize as a prosecutor in all 23 cases while they review her request.
“All State Attorney Ayala wants is the ability to seek justice for her community in the best way that she knows based on facts and data,” Austin said Tuesday. “We are asking the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. District Court in Orlando to ensure the integrity and independence of the justice system as both federal and state law require.”
Scott said Tuesday that the allegations are without merit.
“I think every citizen deserves a state attorney who is going to prosecute the cases. So, I want to thank Brad King for taking on the cases, but I am going to continue to review cases and make sure that we always think about the victim,” Scott said.
Ayala took office in January after beating incumbent State Attorney Jeff Ashton. She did not talk about her stance on capital punishment on the campaign trail. On March 16, she stood in front of the Orange County Courthouse and announced that she will not seek death for the high-profile case of Markeith Loyd, who is accused of murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend and an Orlando police officer — or against anyone else.
Later that day, Scott signed an executive order stripping her of the Loyd murder case and assigning them to King.
The governor took 22 more first-degree murder cases away from Ayala last week, most of them defendants who had already been given the death penalty. Some have had their non-unanimous death sentences vacated since court rulings changed the way Florida imposes its death penalty.
Ayala makes two main arguments in her suit, said University of Florida professor Darren Hutchinson, who teaches constitutional law. One is that removing her dilutes the power of voters in Orange and Osceola counties who elected her to the position. The other is that taking cases away from her office in this way deprives her of her constitutional right to due process.
“She’s an elected official, and that gives her a right to hold that job and to perform it fully,” Hutchinson said. “Gov. Scott has deprived her of that job in an arbitrary ways — it’s just because he disagrees with her.”
Prosecutors typically have wide discretion to decide what to do with cases — whether to charge people, to seek harsher or more lenient punishments, or to seek more or less severe charges, Hutchinson said.
“It’s such a foundational value in our legal system,” he said.
This case highlights the power elected prosecutors typically have and the importance of those elections, he said.
Ayala beat Ashton by nearly 14 percent of the vote in the August primary, though only registered Democrats were able to vote in the race. Her only opponent in November was Bill Vose, a writein candidate who effectively closed the August primary with his candidacy but did not actively campaign for the seat.
Ayala’s announcement that she will not seek the death penalty prompted widespread anger in the law enforcement community.
Orlando Police Chief John Mina said he was “furious,” especially after seeing recorded footage of Loyd shooting one of his officers.
But a recent poll commissioned by the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University shows 62 percent of Orange and Osceola county respondents would prefer it if people convicted of first-degree murder were sentenced to life in prison, with only 31 percent of respondents saying they would prefer the death penalty.
The poll did not ask about Loyd’s case or any other specific defendants.
O.H. Eaton Jr., a retired state circuit judge in Sanford and death penalty specialist, predictsed Ayala would win the court battle with Scott.
“There’s legions of case law out there that says state attorneys have the authority to do whatever they want to do, prosecute, don’t prosecute … seek the death penalty, don’t seek the death penalty,” he said.
He or she “doesn’t have to listen to victims. Doesn’t have to listen to anybody. I think that she’s got a good shot. It ought to be fairly simple. It’s just a question of law,” he said.