Overview
- The court rejected two constitutional challenges to the 2023 statute allowing death sentences on an 8–4 jury recommendation.
- Justices said the Eighth Amendment does not require a unanimous jury recommendation, citing safeguards they found sufficient against arbitrary outcomes.
- In a 65-page opinion, the court affirmed Michael James Jackson’s death sentence from a 2023 resentencing based on an 8–4 jury vote.
- The court upheld Michael H. Hunt’s conviction and left intact his death judgment after rejecting his attack on the nonunanimous recommendation system, which in his case was 10–2.
- Justice Jorge Labarga concurred in the results but stressed that Florida stands alone with the lowest numerical threshold, as Alabama permits death sentences only with at least a 10–2 vote.