Timeline of Florida's Capital Sentencing Scheme

As a supplement to the TFDP five-part series on Hurst v. Florida, this post has a timeline summarizing the history of Florida's capital sentencing scheme.

With the Hertz and Looney petitions now pending at the Florida Supreme Court (covered here), the history of Florida’s capital sentencing scheme is again at center stage. More specifically, as the petitions show, the discussion in these cases will involve (a) the history leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in Hurst that led to Hertz and Looney being granted new penalty phase proceedings, and (b) what happened after Hurst that led to Florida’s recently enacted capital sentencing statute that requires a jury’s vote of only 8-4 to recommend a sentence of death.

These issues involve a confusing web of caselaw, complex histories, and procedural nuances that can be difficult to follow.

The previously posted TFDP five-part series on Hurst explains the entire background of Hurst and how it unfolded, including how it was applied to the almost 400 people on Florida’s death row at the time:

1. Part I - the background that led to Hurst v. Florida

2. Part II - the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Hurst v. Florida and the Florida Supreme Court’s decision on remand

3. Part III - the Florida Supreme Court’s decisions interpreting and applying Hurst

4. Part IV - Florida’s courts address a wave of legislation after Hurst

5. Part V - the change in the U.S. Supreme Court and Florida Supreme Court and the overturning of Hurst II

As a supplement to the five-part series, here’s a graphic that summarizes this history:

“SCOTUS” means the U.S. Supreme Court.

“FSC” means the Florida Supreme Court.

*Note: This is not an exhaustive history but focuses on summarizing the Hurst-related history and changes to Florida’s capital sentencing scheme.