Volusia County judge says 12-0 law applies in resentencing already underway
In the case of Troy Victorino, the jury had been empaneled for resentencing when the new 8-4 legislation passed. In an Order filed today, the Judge ruled that the new legislation will not apply.
In 2006, Troy Victorino was convicted of six counts of first-degree murder for a crime that occurred in 2004. He was sentenced to death on four counts following the jury’s recommendations of 10-2, 10-2, 7-5, and 9-3.
His sentences of death became final in 2010.
Like several others in the state, after Hurst,1 Victorino received a new penalty phase. Victorino’s resentencing was underway when Gov. DeSantis signed the new legislation lowering the jury vote required to recommend a sentence of death from 12-0 to 8-4. The resentencing had been going on for two weeks, during which “288 prospective jurors were questions regarding their attitudes about the death penalty and were repeatedly instructed . . . that Florida’s death penalty statute in effect at the time requires a unanimous vote of the jury for a sentencing verdict of death.” The jury had been sworn the same day the new law was signed.
Immediately upon the new law taking effect, the State filed a motion seeking to apply the new statute to Victorino’s case. After considering the written and oral arguments of both sides, the Court entered an Order (signed April 24, filed April 25) that the old 12-0 standard will apply in the resentencing, writing that to change the law would violate the defendant’s right to due process:
