Today the Florida Supreme Court issued a relatively rare opinion in Nowell v. State, SC06-276 (Fla. 2008), overturning a Brevard Circuit Court's sentence of death based on improper conduct by the prosecutor. The Court found that the State improperly exercised a peremptory strike against a prospective juror based on race and also made "blatantly impermissible" arguments during the penalty phase of the trial. These errors tainted both the guilt phase and the penalty phase of the trial.
In Nowell, the State sought to use a peremptory strike against a juror of Hispanic descent. The Defense objected, and the State attempted to justify the peremptory strike by pointing to the juror's age and the prosecutor's perception that the juror would not follow the law. The Florida Supreme Court rejected these "race-neutral" reasons, commenting that a white juror of roughly the same age and background was seated without objection by the State, while also pointing out that the potential Hispanic juror never made any statements that could be interpreted as demonstrating an unwillingness to follow the law. The Court also found fault with the prosecutor's argument that the jury should impose the death penalty because the defendant was undeserving of mercy since he did not show mercy to the victims. The Court found that such an argument was an unnecessary appeal to the jury's emotions and should not have been allowed. Therefore, the Court concluded that both the guilty verdict and the death sentence imposed by the trial court could not be sustained. As a result, the case has been sent back to the original court for a new trial.
Click here to read the Court's full opinion.
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