[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

May 6



FLORIDA:

Florida's Supreme Court May Overturn the Death Sentences of 400 Prisoners


Months after the United States Supreme Court ruled Florida's death-sentencing 
process unconstitutional, the state's judges are evaluating what the decision 
means for the hundreds of inmates who remain on death row.

According to the Washington Post, Florida's highest court has been hearing 
arguments for the case of convicted felon Timothy Lee Hurst, who received the 
death penalty for the 1998 murder of his coworker Cynthia Harrison. Hurt's 
criminal case was central to SCOTUS' January ruling, when Justice Sonia 
Sotomayor said the judge's power to veto the jury's sentencing made it a 
violation of the Sixth Amendment.

On these grounds, Hurst's lawyers argued on Thursday for their client's death 
sentence to be reduced to life in prison. Should Florida's Supreme Court 
justices rule in favor of Hurst, nearly 400 other prisoners could have their 
sentences overturned as well.

"We're looking at potentially the largest number of death sentences being 
vacated at a single time," the Death Penalty Information Center's executive 
director Robert Dunham told the Post.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi clarified that though the protocol for 
issuing a death sentence has been deemed unconstitutional, it is not to say the 
state's entire death penalty is unconstitutional.

The state doesn't intend to reduce an inmate's sentence, Bondi said, "any time 
any aspect of the statute is held to be unconstitutional." And it's still up 
for debate whether the ruling would retroactively clear all current death row 
inmates.

Former Florida judge O.H. Eaton Jr. said it's difficult to foresee how the 
pending ruling on Hurst's case would impact other death row inmates, telling 
the Post, "It could be anything from a minor effect all the way to clearing out 
death row."

(source: mic.com)






ALABAMA----impending execution

Lawyers for an Alabama death row inmate are asking a federal court to stop his 
execution next week, saying he is incompetent because of mental illness, 
strokes and dementia


Attorneys for 65-year-old Vernon Madison filed the emergency stay request 
Wednesday in federal court in Mobile.

Madison is scheduled to get a lethal injection May 12. He was convicted in the 
1985 slaying of Mobile police Officer Julius Schulte.

Madison's attorneys said he does not remember specific facts of the fatal 
shooting and "does not have a rational understanding of why the state is 
seeking to execute him."

The emergency filing came after a Mobile County judge last month found that 
Madison was competent and knew why he was being executed.

The state has until Monday to file a response.

(source: Associated Press)