{"id":542,"date":"2019-01-14T12:41:24","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T17:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearwatercriminallawyer.net\/?p=542"},"modified":"2026-01-31T13:13:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T18:13:56","slug":"court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Overturns Death Sentence Based on US Supreme Court&#8217;s Finding that Florida&#8217;s Prior Capital Penalty Laws Were Unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that Florida\u2019s capital sentencing scheme was unconstitutional, in <em>Hurst v. Florida<\/em>. The <em>Hurst <\/em>ruling continues to have lasting effects in Clearwater and throughout the state, as many death sentences imposed prior to <em>Hurst <\/em>may be unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the Supreme Court of Florida recently <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/florida\/supreme-court\/2018\/sc16-1032.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">held<\/a>\u00a0that the <em>Hurst <\/em>ruling required resentencing in a case where the death penalty was imposed absent a unanimous jury recommendation.\u00a0 If you live in Clearwater and are charged with a crime, it is in your best interest retain an experienced Clearwater criminal defense attorney to help you retain your rights.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Facts Surrounding the Defendant\u2019s Arrest and Trial <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Reportedly, the defendant was stopped by a police officer while driving a vehicle, when he attempted to flee. The officer followed the defendant and eventually caught up with him. The defendant stopped his vehicle, after which the officer stopped his vehicle. The defendant then exited his vehicle with a handgun and fired three shots into the officer&#8217;s vehicle. The shots hit the officer and he died from his injuries. The defendant then returned to his vehicle and fled. He was ultimately arrested without incident by other officers. The defendant was charged with and convicted by a jury of first degree murder. During the penalty phase of the trial, nine out of twelve jurors recommended death. The Florida statute in effect at that time permitted a judge to impose a death sentence if seven jurors recommended death. The judge released the jurors following the penalty recommendation.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/#more-542\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that Florida\u2019s capital sentencing scheme was unconstitutional, in Hurst v. Florida. The Hurst ruling continues to have lasting effects in Clearwater and throughout the state, as many death sentences imposed prior to Hurst may be unconstitutional. For example, the Supreme Court of Florida recently held\u00a0that the Hurst ruling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-murder","category-sentencing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Search Issue: Death Sentence US Floridas Prior Capital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Pinellas County, a sentencing issue can hinge on death sentence based us. See how this ruling your defense. Get help and plan your next step. Act fast.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Search Issue: Death Sentence US Floridas Prior Capital\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In Pinellas County, a sentencing issue can hinge on death sentence based us. See how this ruling your defense. Get help and plan your next step. Act fast.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Search Issue: Death Sentence US Floridas Prior Capital","description":"In Pinellas County, a sentencing issue can hinge on death sentence based us. See how this ruling your defense. Get help and plan your next step. Act fast.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Search Issue: Death Sentence US Floridas Prior Capital","twitter_description":"In Pinellas County, a sentencing issue can hinge on death sentence based us. See how this ruling your defense. Get help and plan your next step. Act fast.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"headline":"Court Overturns Death Sentence Based on US Supreme Court&#8217;s Finding that Florida&#8217;s Prior Capital Penalty Laws Were Unconstitutional","datePublished":"2019-01-14T17:41:24+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T18:13:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/"},"wordCount":670,"articleSection":["Murder","Sentencing"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/","name":"Search Issue: Death Sentence US Floridas Prior Capital","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-01-14T17:41:24+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T18:13:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"description":"In Pinellas County, a sentencing issue can hinge on death sentence based us. See how this ruling your defense. Get help and plan your next step. Act fast.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/court-overturns-death-sentence-based-on-us-supreme-courts-finding-that-floridas-prior-capital-penalty-laws-were-unconstitutional\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Court Overturns Death Sentence Based on US Supreme Court&#8217;s Finding that Florida&#8217;s Prior Capital Penalty Laws Were Unconstitutional"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/","name":"Clearwater Criminal Lawyer Blog","description":"Published by Florida Defense Lawyer \u2014 Hanlon Law","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939","name":"Hanlon Law, PA","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28c5c60eb08894e1f2f27e2e759788e24587bda0a815ed045456f272f44b2849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28c5c60eb08894e1f2f27e2e759788e24587bda0a815ed045456f272f44b2849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28c5c60eb08894e1f2f27e2e759788e24587bda0a815ed045456f272f44b2849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hanlon Law, PA"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1396,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions\/1396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}