Last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied Michael Orme's claim that the 30-year delay between his offense and sentencing is unconstitutional. How long have people been on Florida's death row?
The length of time on death row is a complicated issue. But, the main reason in my opinion is the Supreme Court itself. Justice Breyer never mentioned this in any of his passionate dissents.
Mainly, the Court's refusal to accept a Ring related case from the Florida Supreme Court until 2016 only added to the mass confusion of the Florida statute. They had Bottoson v Moore and King v Moore in which they granted stays pending the resolution of Ring. SCOTUS denied certiorari without comment on both cases. This resulted in confusion with several Justices of the FSC and other courts. If the Court didn't want King or Moore, they should have selected a case from direct appeal instead of waiting 14 years to accept Hurst.
This is an interesting point, Dave. I agree SCOTUS took an extraordinarily long time to hear the issue presented in Hurst v. Florida. That being said, Justice Breyer's recognition of the fact that the constitutional requirements of death penalty litigation causes years, sometimes decades, of litigation seems to capture this idea. There are competing interests that both affect the prisoner--ensuring the constitutionality of the sentence and the length of time it often takes to do so.
The length of time on death row is a complicated issue. But, the main reason in my opinion is the Supreme Court itself. Justice Breyer never mentioned this in any of his passionate dissents.
Mainly, the Court's refusal to accept a Ring related case from the Florida Supreme Court until 2016 only added to the mass confusion of the Florida statute. They had Bottoson v Moore and King v Moore in which they granted stays pending the resolution of Ring. SCOTUS denied certiorari without comment on both cases. This resulted in confusion with several Justices of the FSC and other courts. If the Court didn't want King or Moore, they should have selected a case from direct appeal instead of waiting 14 years to accept Hurst.
This is an interesting point, Dave. I agree SCOTUS took an extraordinarily long time to hear the issue presented in Hurst v. Florida. That being said, Justice Breyer's recognition of the fact that the constitutional requirements of death penalty litigation causes years, sometimes decades, of litigation seems to capture this idea. There are competing interests that both affect the prisoner--ensuring the constitutionality of the sentence and the length of time it often takes to do so.
Of course. I just never understood the delay from Ring to Hurst.