USA | When Jurors Do Not Agree, Should a Death Sentence Be Imposed?

In most states, a death sentence may only be imposed by a jury in unanimous agreement. But in two recent cases, defendants now face death sentences despite the objections of jurors.

In Missouri, a judge imposed a death sentence in Ian McCarthy’s case after the jury deadlocked in the penalty phase. In their recent filing challenging the sentence, Mr. McCarthy’s lawyers argue that “unanimous jury agreement is necessary to ensure that death sentences are imposed reliably on the most culpable defendants and reflect the judgment of the community.”

Two former Supreme Court justices made similar points in earlier cases. Justice Steven Breyer noted in Hurst v. Florida (2016) that “the Eighth Amendment requires that a jury, not a judge, make the decision to sentence a defendant to death.” He drew on arguments by Justice John Paul Stevens in Spaziano v. Florida (1984) that “the danger of an excessive response can only be avoided if the decision to impose the death penalty is made by a jury rather than by a single governmental official…the question whether a sentence of death is excessive in the particular circumstances of any case is one that must be answered by the decisionmaker that is best able to express the conscience of the community on the ultimate question of life or death.”

In Florida, Joshua McClellan became one of the first defendants to receive a death sentence recommendation from a non-unanimous jury instructed under new legislation signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in April, which requires a minimum of just 8 votes in favor of death. Under the new law, Florida joins Alabama as one of just two states that do not require a unanimous vote to impose a death sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled directly on whether jury unanimity is required in death sentencing.

In Hurst, the Supreme Court struck down a Florida scheme that required the judge to find the aggravating facts necessary to impose death, holding that the Sixth Amendment “requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death.” Based on Hurst, the Florida Supreme Court eliminated non-unanimous death sentences entirely and overturned the sentences of nearly 150 defendants whom at least one juror had voted to spare. However, some defendants’ appeals under Hurst were still pending when the new law overturned the unanimity requirement earlier this year. The change has created “chaos” in the state appellate courts, with inconsistent rulings on whether the 8-4 standard should apply to those defendants who have not yet been resentenced under Hurst.

The law has also generated harsh criticism from legal advocates. “Florida already has the highest number of death row exonerations in the country,” said Tiffani Lennon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. “Florida is rapidly widening the net of who will be sent to death row with absolutely no consideration for the flaws that will inevitably lead to the harm of more innocent people.” Studies suggest that wrongful convictions in past years often featured non-unanimous death sentences, with dissenting votes a product of “residual doubt” among the jurors about the defendant’s guilt. A 2020 DPIC analysis found that 22 of 24 Florida exonerations for which data was available (92%) involved non-unanimous jury recommendations.

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, Staff, September 13, 2023

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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

Florida | Former warden recalls botched electrocution that left him battling PTSD for 13 years and turned him into an abolitionist

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Florida executes James Duckett

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A Fort Myers man on death row for nearly five decades learned his execution date as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his order Thursday, July 30. Harold Gene Lucas, then 24, shot and killed his 16-year-old girlfriend, Anthia Jill Piper in Bonita Springs on August 14, 1976. Lucas was 24 when he was charged in Piper's shooting death at her parents' home on Aug. 14, 1976. The execution is set for Sept. 1 in a state that has accelerated its pace under DeSantis the past two years, with a record of 19 executions in 2025. Piper was shot seven times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated.

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USA | What happens in the final weeks before an execution? These reporters were inside the room.

The journalists behind ‘The Last 12 Weeks’ earned extraordinary access to a death penalty defense team—and faced difficult ethical choices Many defense lawyers are naturally cagey. They work in a pressure cooker, protecting their clients’ rights while fighting for the best possible outcome. And arguably, the stakes can’t get any higher than trying to save a client’s life. So no, defense lawyers don’t usually invite journalists into strategy meetings. But that’s what happened when Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah and Serial Productions senior producer Alvin Melathe spent the final few months before a Texas execution embedded with a capital defense team.

Iran erects iron gallows in Isfahan protest square

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19 July 1943 | Auschwitz's Largest Public Hanging: 12 Polish Prisoners Executed in Escape Reprisal

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

Former Florida cop to be executed on same day as 80-year-old Pasco man

In an unprecedented move in the modern history of capital punishment, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday cleared the way for 2 executions to occur on the same day. DeSantis reset the execution of James Duckett, whose execution earlier this year was stayed amid efforts to secure DNA testing and analysis of evidence in his case. Duckett’s execution was reset for July 28. That is the same day previously set for the execution of Dominick Occhicone. Court records indicate that Duckett’s execution is scheduled for noon. Occhicone’s is set to follow at 6 p.m.

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