Funeral held for Kayla Rincon-Miller, teen killed in Cape CoralBigger bottles of wine hitting the shelves after DeSantis signs new bill
MGN TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Florida would require a unanimous jury recommendation in death penalty cases under a bill approved in its first Senate committee stop. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee unanimously approved the measure on Monday, exactly a week after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review Florida’s death penalty sentencing laws. Only two other states allow non-unanimous jury recommendations – Alabama and Delaware. The Supreme Court decided to hear a case in which Timothy Hurst’s lawyers claim his death sentence is unconstitutional because it wasn’t unanimous. A jury recommended 7-5 that Hurst be executed for the 1998 murder of his manager at a Pensacola-area Popeye’s restaurant. The new sentencing procedures would take effect July 1 if the bill becomes law. It would only apply to cases where a sentence hasn’t been imposed yet.