Jury recommends life for Tiffany Cole
This afternoon, after several days of hearing evidence, a Duval County jury recommended that Tiffany Cole be resentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
Tiffany Cole and two of her codefendants, Alan Wade and Michael J. Jackson, were each tried separately for crimes that occurred in 2005.1 All three were originally sentenced to death based on the juries’ nonunanimous recommendations for death by the following votes:
Tiffany Cole: 9-3 for both victims
Alan Wade: 11-1 for both victims
Michael J. Jackson: 8-4 for both victims
After Hurst, Cole and her codefendants were granted resentencing proceedings in light of the jury’s nonunanimous recommendations for death.2
In late 2022, Wade was resentenced under Florida’s post-Hurst statute that required the jury’s unanimous recommendation for death. He was resentenced to life imprisonment without parole (LWOP) when the jury did not unanimously determine that the aggravation outweighed the mitigation on either count.
Earlier this month, Jackson was resentencing to death following the jury’s recommendation for death of 8-4 under the new sentencing statute.
Cole was the last of the three to be resentenced. Her resentencing proceeding started last week and, like in Jackson’s case, proceeded under Florida’s 2023 capital sentencing statute. After several days of hearing evidence, the jury returned a verdict for LWOP on both counts this afternoon.
According to First Coast News, ten jurors voted to recommend a sentence of LWOP while only two voted for death. (The verdict sheets are not available on the docket.)
Under the statute, the judge must sentence Cole to LWOP following the jury’s recommendation.
Prior TFDP Coverage of Cole’s Case
A fourth codefendant, Bruce Nixon, “was also involved in the crimes but pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and received concurrent sentences of forty-five years in prison.” Wade v. State, 156 So. 3d 1004, 1010 (Fla. 2014).
For a full explanation of Hurst, see TFDP’s five-part series here.