Today, oral argument was presented before the Florida Supreme Court on behalf of Death Row Inmate Timothy Hurst.
Hurst v. Florida Oral Argument Today
This is same Timothy Hurst whose arguments before the United States Supreme Court resulted in the High Court ruling that Florida’s death penalty statute was unconstitutional.
Now, the Florida Supreme Court
Ohio tried to execute Romell Broom once already — if you’ll recall, that was a physical horror and a procedural fiasco.
For more, read our earlier posts on the Broom execution and its appeals through the Ohio state criminal justice system.
Now, the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that allowing the State of Ohio
Salon Magazine has a good piece on how a variety of Hollywood movie and television figures have spurred the release of incarcerated individuals from their prison cells. Read "“Curb Your Enthusiasm” saved a man from death row: 7 real criminal justice cases swayed by TV, film and pop culture," published March 11, 2015.
From the Marshall Project, their widget reporting on The Next to Die in Florida:
In Florida, there are Death Row inmates who may need new sentencing hearings after the SCOTUS ruling in Hurst that the Florida death penalty statute was unconstitutional. There are also lots of lawmakers working hard to draft new capital punishment laws.
We’ve been monitoring all this here on the blog for the past few weeks.
But
Last week, we posted about a bill moving through the Florida House of Representatives in response to the SCOTUS ruling in Hurst, finding that the current Florida death penalty statute is unconstitutional.
Florida Senate Bill Takes Different Stance on Florida Death Penalty
There is also a new bill moving through the Florida Senate that
Here’s what happening in the Florida Death Penalty Statute flux this week:
1. New Law in the Works
The Florida Legislature is working hard on revising the Florida Death Penalty Statute after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the current law is unconstitutional in Hurst.
The Florida House Subcommittee on Criminal
What’s Going On Here?
Here’s the question: is the death penalty becoming less acceptable to the American Public — or is the decline a result of the inability of states to execute efficiently with the lethal injection method of execution?
The Death Penalty Information Center released its new report, "Death Penalty in the United States," this week.
New DPIC Report on Death Penalty in the United States in 2015
You can read the full text of the report online here.
Among its key findings are:
• There were 28 executions in 6 states, the fewest since
Yesterday, the State of Georgia executed Brian Keith Terrell for the June 1992 killing of John Watson.
Terrell was convicted of murdering Watson after Watson demanded Terrell pay him back after Terrell forged some of Watson’s checks.
It was an execution by lethal injection. There are many who argue that Terrell was innocent of the