Is the Florida state death-penalty law unconstitutional?
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A Miami-Dade judge has ruled that Florida’s death penalty is unconstitutional because jurors are not required to agree unanimously on execution, a decision certain to spur more legal wrangling over Florida’s capital punishment system.
Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch on Monday became the first state judge to rule on the constitutionality of Florida’s revamped death-penalty sentencing law. Miami-Dade prosecutors immediately vowed to appeal.
He issued the ruling in the case of Karon Gaiter, 37, who is awaiting trial for first-degree murder for fatally shooting a man seated in a car in North Miami-Dade in April 2012.
Hirsch wrote that Florida’s recently enacted “super majority” system — 10 of 12 juror votes are needed to impose execution as punishment for murder — goes against the long-time sanctity of unanimous verdicts in the U.S. justice system.
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