Death penalty back on track

The state law allowing the death penalty might be unconstitutional, but cases where capital punishment is on the table can still go forward, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The decisionwas the latest twist in a yearlong saga about Florida’s method of imposing executions.

In a pair of October rulings, the state court ruled that a new law, passed in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a case known as Hurst v. Florida, was unconstitutional because it only required10 jurors to recommend death “as opposed to the constitutionally required unanimous, 12-member jury.”

The October majority opinion in the case of Larry Perry also found that the new law “cannot be applied to pending prosecutions.”

But in an apparent reversal of that decision Monday, the majority ruled that capital cases can move forward, even before lawmakers fix the statute.

The majority in the 5-2 decision comprised Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices R. Fred Lewis, Charles Canady and Ricky Polston, along with newly seated Justice Alan Lawson, who joined the court at the end of December.

The majority on Monday decided that the new law can be applied to pending prosecutions, and is constitutional, “if 12 jurors unanimously determine that a defendant should be sentenced to death.”

But in her dissent, Justice Barbara Pariente argued that what could be a “temporary” fix, until lawmakers address the issue, could lead to more litigation.

“Such concerns are precisely why it is for the Legislature, not this (Supreme) Court, to enact legislation curing the act’s fatal 10-2 provisions, assuming the Legislature intends for the death penalty to continue to be imposed in Florida,” Pariente wrote in a dissent joined by Justice Peggy Quince.

The Legislature, in the meantime, is looking to fix the problem. The House Judiciary Committee voted a day after the court’s ruling to require a unanimous jury decision to condemn defendants to death.