MIAMI — The Florida Supreme Court won't be returning dozens of convicted murderers to death row.
In two decisions on Wednesday that clarified months of confusion, justices said they did not have the legal authority to reinstate the death penalty for the killers who had previously been on death row, but had sentences tossed out because of legal questions over whether juries must be unanimous in meting out the ultimate punishment.
In one of the cases, against convicted Orange County murderer Bessman Okafor, the Supreme Court said it could not "lawfully reinstate that sentence" and he deserved a new sentencing hearing. The rulings could affect over 100 former death row inmates who remain convicted of murder, but have been awaiting new sentencing hearings.
"We acknowledge the burden that resentencing proceedings will place on the victims of Okafor's crimes," the court ruled in a unanimous decision. "We also acknowledge the consequences for the victims in similar cases that will be governed by our decision here. Nonetheless, our holding is compelled by applicable law.
Critics of the death penalty hailed Wednesday's decision, even though the Florida Supreme Court earlier this year flip-flopped and decided juries didn't always need to be unanimous in sentencing someone to die for murder.
Wednesday's rulings cleared up some questions, starting with the big one: Former death row inmates won't automatically be getting sent back to face execution. And it won't affect future capital cases. Florida law, for now, has been since been changed to require unanimous jury verdicts for a death sentence.
"Finally, the Florida Supreme Court gives us a good decision," said Hannah Gorman, who heads the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University's College of Law. "One hundred lives now have a shot at a fair penalty trial."
In Florida, a 12-person jury listens to evidence and decides whether to sentence someone to die, or give them life in prison. In Miami-Dade, Wednesday's rulings mean that some of the county's most notorious killers will indeed have a chance to try and convince a jury to spare their lives.
Among them: Labrant Dennis, who fatally beat to death University of Miami player Marlon Barnes in 1996; Joel Lebron, the ringleader of a group that kidnapped 18-year-old Ana Maria Angel girl, raping her and shooting her execution-style in 2002; and Noel Doorbal and Daniel Lugo, two Miami bodybuilders convicted of the kidnapping and grisly dismemberment murders of businessman Frank Griga and his girlfriend, Krisztina Furton.
The rulings add yet another twist to the yearslong legal saga over whether Florida juries must be unanimous in meting out the death sentence.
For decades, Florida was one of the few states that did not require a jury to decide unanimously on sentencing someone to die for a capital offense. Jurors issued bare majority "advisory" recommendations, with judges imposing execution as a sentence.
But in January 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the state's death-penalty sentencing system was unconstitutional because it gave too little power to juries. The Florida Supreme followed up later that year by ruling that jury verdicts need to be unanimous — a decision that overturned the death sentences or at least 151 death row inmates.
Since then, nearly 40 convicted killers wound up getting life prison sentences, and eight got sent back to death row after new sentencing hearings presided over by juries, according to FIU's Center for Capital Representation.
But then in January, in a decision that shocked critics of capital punishment, a more conservative Florida Supreme Court said it had "erred" three years earlier and that juries don't always need to be unanimous in sentencing someone to die. The backtrack meant inmates who had returned to local jails to await new sentencing hearings were unsure of what would happen.
Across Florida, state attorneys sought to send some of the inmates back to Florida State Prison to await execution, as legal fights continued over. On Wednesday, justices decided that even thought it had mostly backtracked on the jury unanimity, it did not have legal authority reimpose the death sentences.
