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SCOTUS: FL Death Penalty Unconstitutional

Justices say system lets judges have too much sentencing power.

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Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Florida’s death-penalty system is unconstitutional because it gives judges too much power to decide capital-punishment sentences. The justices ruled 8-1 that the state’s system gives juries only an advisory role in death sentences. The High Court also ordered a new hearing for Timothy Lee Hurst, a man convicted in the murder of his coworker, Cynthia Harrison, in 1998. The jury in Hurst’s case was divided 7-5 in favor of death. The judge imposed the sentence.

Read it at Tampa Bay Times

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