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Thread: Timothy Lee Hurst - Florida

  1. #51
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    Florida Supreme Court questions state's new death penalty law

    The Florida Supreme Court questioned on Thursday whether the new death penalty law passed by the Legislature earlier this year cements sentences for the 390 people sitting on death row, or whether they should be given life.

    Florida Supreme Court justices Barbara Pariente, James E.C. Perry and Peggy Quince pulled apart the construction of the law hurriedly passed by state lawmakers after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the previous law on Jan. 12, the first day of legislative session. The justices wondered if the new law could be applied to inmates already on death row.

    Pariente said she was particularly concerned the new law may violate the Eighth Amendment.

    "If we want a death penalty in Florida, it's got to be constitutional," Pariente said. "It's got to be narrow."

    The state's high court took up the issue during oral arguments over the death penalty case of Timothy Lee Hurst, which led the nation's high court to reject the former law. A majority of the federal justices ruled Florida's death penalty law gave judges too much power and violated the U.S. Constitution. The new law requires juries to agree unanimously to circumstances that warrant a death penalty sentence, and the panel must agree in a supermajority to the death penalty sentence itself.

    Hurst was convicted of murdering a co-worker at a fast-food restaurant in Pensacola in 1998. His defense attorney, David Davis, argued before the state Supreme Court that Hurst should get life because the previous sentencing system was defective.

    Assistant Florida Attorney General Carine Mitz said that Hurst should still face the death penalty because the error found by nation's highest court was within the mechanics of the law itself and not the actual case.

    Attorneys from around the state filed friend-of-the-court briefs with the Hurst case that called for all death row inmates to receive reduced sentences. The justices grappled with ways to apply the new law to old cases when the Legislature only applied it to prospective ones. Perry said the same process the U.S. Supreme Court found unconstitutional with the state's previous death penalty law — placing so much sentencing power into the hands of judges — may be the only remedy for appellate judges over the 390 existing cases.

    One of the attorneys who helped filed the briefs ancillary to the Hurst case was Sonya Rudenstine, of Gainesville, who said she was heartened to see the justices take the issue so seriously. Balancing constitutionality with the state's desire to carry out death penalty sentences would be difficult, Rudenstine said.

    "The only other solution will lead to years and years of litigation," Rudenstine said.

    Gov. Rick Scott signed the new death penalty law in March. The Senate version of the bill wanted unanimous jury recommendations on both the aggravating circumstances that made the death penalty eligible and the sentence itself. The supermajority rule written into the law was a compromise with House lawmakers who wanted a less overwhelming jury vote.

    Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, said she preferred the unanimous jury recommendations on both the aggravating circumstances and the actual death penalty sentence. She had predicted after the Senate passed the bill that it would face future court challenges.

    "I could see why Justice Pariente was concerned because it doesn't make sense not to have it unanimous," Joyner said. "But they wanted their death penalty and I thought it was better than what we had."

    Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier this year that there were 43 death penalty cases that are now eligible for life. Those cases have not yet been heard by the state Supreme Court.

    http://www.naplesnews.com/news/state...378289721.html
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  2. #52
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    TIMOTHY LEE HURST v THE STATE of FLORIDA

    In today's Florida Supreme Court opinions, the court VACATED Hurst's sentence of death and remanded the case for a new penalty phase.
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  3. #53
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    Florida Supreme Court says state’s new death penalty law is unconstitutional

    By Mark Berman
    The Washington Post

    Just seven months after Florida revamped its death penalty law, the state’s Supreme Court struck down the new statute as unconstitutional because it does not require juries to be unanimous about handing down the sentences.

    This ruling further adds to the uncertainty surrounding the death penalty in Florida, one of the country’s leading practitioners of capital punishment and home to one of the nation’s biggest death-row populations. The state’s death penalty has been in flux this year thanks to a series of court rulings that have left unclear what will happen to the nearly 400 inmates still on the state’s death row.

    The Florida Supreme Court decision Friday marks the second time this year that a court has overturned the state’s death-sentencing statute. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s old law as unconstitutional in January because it allowed judges, not juries, to make the final decision about imposing capital sentences.

    In response to the high court’s ruling, Florida enacted a new measure in March that said jurors must unanimously agree that a case involves at least one aggravating circumstance necessary to warrant a death sentence. The new death-penalty law also increased the number of jurors needed to approve a death sentence, pushing it to 10 jurors from the seven previously needed.

    A spokesman for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) said her office was still looking over the ruling handed down Friday.

    “We are reviewing the Florida Supreme Court ruling, but in the meantime Florida juries must make unanimous decisions in capital cases as to the appropriateness of the death penalty,” the spokesman said.

    The ruling came down in a case brought by Timothy Lee Hurst, convicted of the 1998 murder of Cynthia Lee Harrison, his co-worker at a Popeyes fast-food restaurant in Pensacola. He also brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, leading to the justices striking down Florida’s death penalty earlier this year.

    In addition, the Florida Supreme Court handed down another ruling regarding the state’s new death penalty law on Friday. In that case, Perry v. Florida, the justices declared that the updated death penalty statute could not be constitutionally applied to pending prosecutions because it does not require unanimous juries.

    “The Florida Supreme Court’s ruling that jury recommendations for the death penalty must be unanimous is a long overdue recognition of the state’s fatally flawed capital punishment regime,” Mary Anne Franks, a professor with the University of Miami School of Law, said in a statement released Friday.

    The office of Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.cb6fefb962f3

  4. #54
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    TIMOTHY LEE HURST v THE STATE OF FLORIDA

    Petitioner Timothy Lee Hurst has filed an amended petition for writ of prohibition contending that Respondent, the State of Florida, is precluded from seeking the death penalty during the current resentencing proceedings on double jeopardy and due process grounds. Having determined that the arguments presented are without merit, the petition is hereby denied. It is so ordered.
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  6. #56
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    Justices rejects Florida appeal over death penalty

    The Supreme Court has left in place a lower court ruling that said imposing a death sentence in Florida requires a unanimous jury.

    The justices on Monday turned away an appeal from Florida officials seeking to overturn the ruling last year from the state's highest court.

    The Florida Supreme Court had struck down a newly enacted law allowing a defendant to be sentenced to death as long as 10 out of 12 jurors recommend it. That ruling concluded that Timothy Lee Hurst — convicted of a 1998 murder at a Pensacola Popeye's restaurant — deserves a new sentencing hearing.

    Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Florida's death penalty sentencing law unconstitutional. State legislators responded by overhauling the law.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/miamihe...151911552.html
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  7. #57
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    Landmark death penalty case, over a Pensacola murder at a Popeyes, back in court

    By Colin Warren-Hicks
    The Pensacola News-Journal

    The landmark Pensacola-based death penalty case responsible for revamping Florida’s judicial procedure when it comes to the adjudication of capital punishment will be back in an Escambia County courtroom this week.

    Timothy Hurst was a Pensacola fast-food worker convicted in 1998 of tying up his manager, Cynthia Harrison, in a Popeyes freezer and stabbing her to death.

    He has been sentenced to death twice, has had both previous sentences thrown out by higher courts and, now, will undergo a third penalty phase this week.

    Jury selection for the penalty phase began Monday morning, according to Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille.

    In 1998, Hurst was sentenced to death, but that sentence was vacated by the Florida Supreme Court.

    During a second penalty hearing, he was sentenced to death by a 7-5 jury vote. That case was appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

    After reviewing the facts, the court ruled that Florida's death penalty processes violated the Sixth Amendment because judges, as opposed to jurors, decided the factors permitting death sentences.

    Florida policymakers have since adjusted the capital punishment system to give jurors more responsibility. For Hurst to receive a third death sentence, this newest jury will have to unanimously recommend execution.

    If a single juror stands in opposition to a sentence of death, Hurst will automatically receive a sentence of life in prison.

    Harrison’s family told the News Journal shortly after her May 3, 1998, death that she had worked at a Popeyes in Louisiana before transferring to the restaurant’s Nine Mile Road location and had been thrilled about a promotion to manager.

    Harrison, 28, was a newlywed and a new arrival to Pensacola who enjoyed fishing and camping with her 28-year-old husband whenever they managed to schedule mutual days off from their respective jobs.

    She was found gagged and bound in her workplace’s freezer with her throat slit, and the New Journal reported that a boxcutter police believed to be the murder weapon was found close to her body.

    Detectives suspected that Hurst’s motivation for killing Harrison was money. A Popeyes’ safe was left open with money missing, and Harrison's body was discovered by a delivery driver.

    On the day she died, Harrison arrived around 8 a.m. at Popeyes to prep the restaurant for a 10 a.m. opening. Investigators theorized that Harrison must have opened the door that morning for her early-arrival employee, Hurst, having no reason to suspect murderous intent.

    https://pnj.com/story/news/crime/202...la/4858361002/

  8. #58
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    Pensacola man convicted of murder and twice sentenced to death will now serve life in prison

    By Colin Warren-Hicks
    The Pensacola News-Journal

    A landmark Pensacola death penalty case concluded this week with a jury recommending not to reimpose the death sentence on Timothy Hurst, a man who had been sentenced to death by two previous juries.

    Timothy Hurst was a Pensacola fast-food worker who was convicted in 1998 of binding his manager inside a Popeyes freezer and stabbing her to death. His case ultimately led to an overhaul of Florida's legal procedure pertaining of capital punishment.

    On Thursday, a jury did not unanimously opt to impose the death sentence on Hurst. Therefore, the only available sentencing option left for a judge to impose was life in prison without the possibility for parole, according to Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille.

    "The only two sentences available were the death sentence or life in prison," Marcille said. "(While) the jury did find that a sentence of death was appropriate in the case, they did not recommend imposing the sentence of death."

    Hurst was sentenced to death on two previous occasions, and higher courts threw out those previous sentences in both cases.

    In 1998, Hurst was sentenced to death, but that sentence was vacated by the Florida Supreme Court.

    In his second penalty phase hearing, he was sentenced to death by a 7-5 jury vote in a case that was appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that Florida's death penalty processes violated the Sixth Amendment on the basis that judges, as opposed to jurors, decided the factors permitting death sentences.

    The ruling forced Florida policymakers to adjust the state’s capital punishment system to give jurors more responsibility.

    Over the past week and a half, Hurst underwent a third penalty phase in Escambia County court, and the most recent jury did not unanimously decide to impose the death penalty.

    Hurst's Popeyes manager, Cynthia Harrison, was found gagged and bound in the restaurant's freezer with her throat slit on May 3, 1998. A box cutter police believed to be the murder weapon was found close to her body, according to News Journal archives.

    Detectives suspected Hurst intended to rob the Popeyes. A workplace safe was left open and there was money missing.

    Harrison’s family spoke to the News Journal shortly after her death. They said the 28-year-old had worked at a Popeyes in Louisiana before transferring to the restaurant on Nine Mile Road and had recently been promoted to a manager.

    She moved to Pensacola with her husband, and the newlyweds enjoyed fishing and camping together in their free time, the family said.

    https://eu.pnj.com/story/news/crime/...on/4977072002/

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