Post by Logan on Feb 3, 2016 3:52:37 GMT -6
The Florida Supreme Court ordered an indefinite stay in the execution of a Glades County killer who was set to die next week — a move that only cast further uncertainty over the state’s death penalty.
The stay was issued just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a portion of Florida’s sentencing process in capital cases, finding that juries, not judges, have the ultimate responsibility in weighing factors leading to a death recommendation.
Florida justices ordered the stay Tuesday in the case of Michael Lambrix, convicted in a 1983 double homicide, but did not elaborate on their reasoning. However, Lambrix’s attorneys argued it would be wrong for the execution to go on given a portion of the state’s death penalty statute was found unconstitutional.
The stay’s ramifications —beyond sparing Lambrix’s life for now, at least — were not clear. Justices are trying to determine in part whether the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in a case involving Pensacola killer Timothy Lee Hurst, applies to other cases involving Florida’s other 389 death row inmates.
Read more: www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2016/02/02/stay-casts-more-doubt-floridas-death-penalty/79720570/
The stay was issued just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a portion of Florida’s sentencing process in capital cases, finding that juries, not judges, have the ultimate responsibility in weighing factors leading to a death recommendation.
Florida justices ordered the stay Tuesday in the case of Michael Lambrix, convicted in a 1983 double homicide, but did not elaborate on their reasoning. However, Lambrix’s attorneys argued it would be wrong for the execution to go on given a portion of the state’s death penalty statute was found unconstitutional.
The stay’s ramifications —beyond sparing Lambrix’s life for now, at least — were not clear. Justices are trying to determine in part whether the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in a case involving Pensacola killer Timothy Lee Hurst, applies to other cases involving Florida’s other 389 death row inmates.
Read more: www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2016/02/02/stay-casts-more-doubt-floridas-death-penalty/79720570/