Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala announced she has organized a death penalty review panel to look at first-degree murder cases after the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Gov. Rick Scott has the authority to take death penalty cases away from her.
“With implementation of this Panel, it is my expectation that going forward all first-degree murder cases that occur in my jurisdiction will remain in my office and be evaluated and prosecuted accordingly," Ayala said in a statement.
Ayala announced in March that she will not seek the death penalty in any case. Supreme Court Justice C. Alan Lawson cited the catch-all policy in an opinion released Thursday (pdf), declining to give Ayala's office 29 death penalty cases that Scott assigned to another prosecutor using executive orders.
Ayala did not immediately say who the seven prosecutors will be, or if the death penalty will be a possibility they consider.
“Far from being unreasoned or arbitrary ... the reassignments are predicated upon ‘good and sufficient reason,’ namely Ayala’s blanket refusal to pursue the death penalty in any case despite Florida law establishing the death penalty as an appropriate sentence under certain circumstances,” Lawson wrote.
The court was split 5-2, with Justices Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince dissenting.
“The Governor’s decision in this case fundamentally undermines the constitutional role of duly elected State Attorneys,” Quince wrote.
Scott called the decision a “great victory.”
“Crimes like these are pure evil and deserve the absolute full consideration of punishment – something that State Attorney Ayala completely ruled out,” Scott said in a statement. “She unilaterally decided to not stand on the side of victims and their families, which is completely sickening. In Florida, we hold criminals fully accountable for the crimes they commit – especially those that attack our law enforcement community and innocent children.”
Ayala, who took office in January, announced March 16 that she will not seek the death penalty for anyone as the region’s top prosecutor. She said research showed the death penalty was unevenly applied, put families through decades-long ordeals, and did not deter serious crimes, among other reasons.
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Source: Orlando Sentinel, Gal Tziperman Lotan, August 31, 2017
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
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