No new hearing for man who killed Boca woman

The killer of a Boca Raton woman in 1984 will remain on Death Row rather than receive a new sentencing hearing, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

But Duane Owen still has a pending case before the high court concerning yet another death sentence he received for the 1984 murder of a 14-year-old Delray Beach babysitter.

Lawyers for the 57-year-old Owen had filed claims for new hearings in both cases, based on 2016 U.S. Supreme Court and Florida Supreme Court decisions that the state’s process for sentencing people to death was unconstitutional.

Under a new state law adopted last year, unanimous jury votes are now required to recommend death sentences.

Since 2016, lawyers representing Florida death row inmates sentenced under the old law have argued for new sentencing hearings.

But the Florida Supreme Court has determined that a June 24, 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision should be used as a cutoff to determine which death row inmates may be entitled to hearings. Death sentences that became final before that date would not be affected.

That 2002 decision, Ring v. Arizona, held that juries, not judges, were required to find the aggravating factors necessary to impose capital punishment.

Tuesday’s ruling concerns Owen’s conviction and sentence for the May 28, 1984 murder of Georgianna Worden, 38. He was found guilty of breaking into the single mother’s home, raping her and bludgeoning her to death with a hammer.

The jury voted 10-2 to recommend the death penalty, and the trial judge handed down the death sentence.

Although Owen’s conviction and punishment was affirmed by the state Supreme Court in 1992 — 10 years before the Ring cutoff date — his lawyers still argued for a new sentencing hearing because his jury was not unanimous for death.

The Florida Supreme Court denied Owen’s challenge, citing that his sentence became final in 1992.

However, the court on Monday ordered attorneys for the state to submit arguments for why Owen should not get a hearing in the babysitter murder case.