JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — High-profile death penalty cases in Northeast Florida will be impacted by a new state law making it easier to sentence a person to death.
Action News Jax confirmed both the 4th Judicial Circuit’s general counsel and State Attorney Melissa Nelson’s office plan to apply the new law, which lowers the threshold for a jury to recommend a death sentence from a unanimous decision down to a supermajority, to pending cases even if the alleged crime occurred before the law was changed.
Mario Fernandez Saldana, the man accused of coordinating the murder of Jared Bridegan in February of 2022, could become one of the first test cases in Duval County.
“It is the position of the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit that the death penalty legislation recently signed into law by Governor DeSantis applies to any capital case currently pending in Florida’s criminal justice system. We intend to proceed accordingly,” said Nelson’s Communications Director David Chapman in an emailed statement.
The law doesn’t specifically address retroactivity, but Governor Ron DeSantis told Action News Jax Wednesday he agrees the new standard should apply to pending cases.
“I think it does cause it’s a procedural change and usually procedural changes are fine,” said DeSantis.
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But Ernest Chang, a death-certified attorney and President of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers argued lowering the standard for a death sentence to be imposed is more than a procedural change.
“I’d argue putting somebody to death with a vote is a pretty substantive change in the law,” said Chang.
Chang said generally, procedural changes only apply to active cases if they benefit the defendant.
In this case, he argues the change does the exact opposite.
“They’re changing the rules in the middle of the game and that’s just completely wrong,” said Chang.
Lowering the threshold for jury death sentence recommendations is already a constitutional grey area and both DeSantis and Chang anticipate it’s likely to be debated in the courts for years to come.
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And while the goal of the legislation was to secure more death sentences, Richard Dieter with the Death Penalty Information Center cautioned by rushing to test out the new law on pending cases, it’s even more likely death sentences won’t stand up on appeal.
“Most people who get the death penalty, and this is true in Florida, it is true around the country, are not executed. Their cases are overturned,” said Dieter. “It’s more likely that your case will be overturned and you’ll end up with a life sentence anyhow and this makes that more likely I think. There are more appealable issues now.”
Florida is an outlier in only requiring eight of twelve jurors to impose a death sentence.
Alabama is the only other state that doesn’t require unanimity, and even in that state, ten of twelve jurors have to agree death is warranted.
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