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U.S. justices press Florida over death penalty sentencing
Source: Reuters
US | Tue Oct 13, 2015 1:07pm EDT
U.S. justices press Florida over death penalty sentencing
WASHINGTON | BY LAWRENCE HURLEY
A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday expressed skepticism about Florida's process for death sentences as they weighed the appeal of a man convicted of murdering the manager of a Popeye's Fried Chicken restaurant.
Timothy Hurst, whose lawyers describe as mentally disabled with "borderline intelligence" and an IQ between 70 and 78, was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of a manager at the restaurant in Pensacola where he worked.
Key findings that determined whether he received the death penalty were impermissibly made by a judge rather than a jury, Hurst's lawyers argued as the high court heard oral arguments in the case.
The Florida procedure violates the right to trial by jury guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment based on a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, his lawyers said. The high court said in that ruling that aggravating factors that can lead to an enhanced sentence must be determined by juries, not judges.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)
U.S. justices press Florida over death penalty sentencing
WASHINGTON | BY LAWRENCE HURLEY
A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday expressed skepticism about Florida's process for death sentences as they weighed the appeal of a man convicted of murdering the manager of a Popeye's Fried Chicken restaurant.
Timothy Hurst, whose lawyers describe as mentally disabled with "borderline intelligence" and an IQ between 70 and 78, was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of a manager at the restaurant in Pensacola where he worked.
Key findings that determined whether he received the death penalty were impermissibly made by a judge rather than a jury, Hurst's lawyers argued as the high court heard oral arguments in the case.
The Florida procedure violates the right to trial by jury guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment based on a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, his lawyers said. The high court said in that ruling that aggravating factors that can lead to an enhanced sentence must be determined by juries, not judges.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/13/us-usa-court-deathpenalty-idUSKCN0S729L20151013
