Washington, DC – The nation’s highest court deems Florida’s death penalty system unconstitutional.
Tuesday’s 8-1 ruling from the United States Supreme Court shows the system gives too much power to judges and not enough to juries to decide on capital sentences.
The court decision says the flaw is that juries only advise and a judge can reach a different decision altogether.
It came in the case of Timothy Lee Hurst, a Pensacola man convicted in the 1998 murder of the manager of the Popeye’s where he worked.
The Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Hurst after a jury divided 7-5 in favor of death but a judge imposed the death sentence anyway.
Florida’s solicitor general argued that the system was acceptable because a jury first decides if the defendant is eligible for the death penalty.
Robert Durham with the Death Penalty Information Center says the Florida Legislature can write a fix for future capital cases, but this ruling will impact many of the cases where sentences either are pending or have been passed.
Durham believes this will lead to a lot of case reviews and he figures it will have a broad impact for Florida.
2 other states have a similar formula for the death penalty but Dunham says this ruling will have no impact on them.
Florida News Network contributed to this report.
Copyright 2016 Southern Stone Communications.