The American Bar Association recently filed an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Courty, asking the justices to overturn the sentencing portion of Florida’s death penalty scheme that allows for non-unanimous jury determinations.
In March, the court accepted for review the Florida system and specifically asked whether it “violates the Sixth Amendment or the Eighth Amendment” in light of a 2002 court ruling. In that case, arising out of Arizona, the court found that a jury — rather than a judge — must decide on the existence of any aggravating circumstances that make the defendant eligible for the death penalty.
Florida’s law is unique among laws in all capital punishment states. Where a defendant has not waived his or her right to a jury trial, only Florida does not require a unanimous jury vote on whether aggravating circumstances have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt, or on the jury’s recommendation or decision that a death sentence should be imposed. Most capital punishment states require unanimity on both.
“A capital sentencing jury in Florida may make its sentencing recommendation based on a majority vote, and may do so without agreeing on which aggravating circumstances exist — it may even recommend a death sentence when each juror believes that a different aggravator was proved,” the ABA brief pointed out.
The ABA has no position on the death penalty per se. But at its Midyear Meeting in February, the ABA House of Delegates approved Resolution 108A that urges any jurisdiction that imposes the death penalty to require jury unanimity both in determining aggravating factors and on its recommendation or decision that the death penalty be imposed.
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