WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Under Florida’s current law, juries can recommend the death penalty on a majority vote. The new law, however, would require ten out of 12 jurors in a capital punishment case to agree on the death penalty.
"The Senate approved changes Thursday to Florida’s death penalty sentencing law to address the problems the US Supreme Court cited in declaring it unconstitutional, sending the bill to Gov. Rick Scott for his signature," the Miami Herald reported on Thursday.
In January, the US Supreme Court struck down part of Florida’s death penalty law as unconstitutional, ruling that it did not give juries an adequate voice in deciding whether defendants are sentenced to death.
Since 1972, more than two dozen death row inmates in Florida have been released because they were either acquitted at a retrial, charges were dropped or they were given an absolute pardon by the governor, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
