The Florida Supreme Court recently held that the
state’s capital punishment statute is unconstitutional. Approximately 380
people sentenced to death under the now-invalidated sentencing scheme remain on
death row, reported Fairpunishment.org.
While litigation is still pending over whether the decision
applies to all Florida death sentences, the Court has clarified that the
approximately 150 people who were convicted after the Ring v. Arizona decision
in 2002 must have their sentences reconsidered. Roughly one-third of these
individuals convicted since 2002 come from just five of Florida’s 67 counties:
Duval, Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Orange, and Pinellas.
This report examines the 48 invalidated death
sentences from these five Florida counties. We examined legal pleadings and
opinions, trial testimony, and media reports, and consulted with several legal
experts in Florida who are familiar with the individuals on death row.
Our research revealed that 63 percent of these
individuals exhibit signs of serious mental illness or intellectual impairment,
endured devastatingly severe childhood trauma, or were not old enough to
legally purchase alcohol at the time the offense occurred.
The pervasiveness
of these crippling impairments among Florida’s death row population is
significant when evaluating whether the death penalty was the appropriate
sentence. Although all murders are gruesome and deserving of serious sanction,
the Constitution limits the death penalty to the most aggravated and least
mitigated cases.
So, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that
regardless of the severity of the crime the death penalty cannot be imposed
upon a juvenile or an intellectually disabled person, both classes of
individuals who suffer from impaired mental and emotional capacity relative to
typically developed adults. To do otherwise would be so disproportionate as to
violate his or her “inherent dignity as a human being.”
To read more CLICK HERE
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment