Give death penalty panel chance to work

After Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala’s surprise announcement in March that she wouldn’t seek the death penalty against accused cop-killer Markeith Loyd or anyone else as long as she was in office, Gov. Rick Scott reassigned Loyd’s prosecution and other pending first-degree murder cases in the 9th Judicial Circuit — ultimately, 29 of them — to 5th Circuit State Attorney Brad King, an advocate of capital punishment. Ayala hired a private lawyer from Washington, D.C., and fired back with a lawsuit challenging Scott’s actions, running up a $375,000 tab for taxpayers. Deathpenalty opponents across Florida and around the country rallied to her side.

When that suit reached the Florida Supreme Court this summer, the odds seemed to be in the Democratic prosecutor’s favor. The high court has a liberal majority, and justices have overturned the Republican governor’s policies before.

Instead, by a 5-2 vote, the justices ruled for Scott. In a convincing majority opinion issued last month, Justice Alan Lawson wrote, “Far from being unreasoned or arbitrary ... the reassignments are predicated upon ‘good and sufficient reason,’ namely Ayala’s blanket refusal to pursue the death penalty in any case despite Florida law establishing the death penalty as an appropriate sentence under certain circumstances.”

In Florida, legislators write the laws, and prosecutors enforce them.