Florida Supreme Court oral arguments next week
Next week, the Florida Supreme Court will hear oral argument on James Herard's direct appeal.
Next week, the Court will hear one day of oral arguments (OAs) for this month.
There is one capital case on the schedule—James Herard’s direct appeal of his sentence of death for crimes that occurred in 2008. Herard was sentenced to death in 2015 following a jury’s recommendation for death by a vote of 8-4 under Florida’s pre-Hurst capital sentencing scheme.1
The case is set for OA on Wednesday, November 8, at 10:30 a.m. Herard presents five issues on appeal:
The docket can be accessed here.
Arguments will be live-streamed on the Florida Supreme Court website.
Herard’s case is in an interesting procedural posture because he would have been entitled to relief on at least Count V (regarding the jury’s nonunanimous jury recommendation) under the Court’s post-Hurst framework (a sentence pending on direct appeal when Hurst was decided imposed following a non-unanimous recommendation). However, the case will be decided now—following the Court’s decision in a completely different landscape, after the Court’s 2020 decision in Poole.