Title: Roderrick Justin Ferrell v. State of Florida
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: SC93-127
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: November 9, 2000

Supreme 
Court 
of 
Florida
 
____________
No. SC93127
____________
RODERRICK JUSTIN FERRELL,
Appellant, Cross-Appellee,
vs.
STATE OF FLORIDA, 
Appellee, Cross-Appellant.
[November 9, 2000]
PER CURIAM.
We have on appeal the judgments and sentences of the trial court imposing
the death penalty upon Roderrick Justin Ferrell.  We have jurisdiction.  Art. V, §
3(b)(1), Fla. Const.  For the reasons expressed below, we vacate the death
sentences and reduce the sentences to life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole.  
Roderrick Justin Ferrell pled guilty to one count of armed burglary, one
count of armed robbery, and two counts of first-degree murder for the 1996
1
We reject the State’s argument and invitation to revisit this decision.
-2-
murders of Richard Wendorf and Naoma Queen.  He was sixteen at the time of the
crimes.  The trial court sentenced Ferrell to death for the murders.  
Subsequently, in Brennan v. State, 754 So.2d 1 (Fla.1999),1 this Court
concluded that the imposition of a death sentence on a sixteen-year-old defendant
constitutes cruel or unusual punishment in violation of article I, section 17 of the
Florida Constitution.  Accordingly, we affirm Ferrell’s convictions, vacate his death
sentences, and reduce the sentences to life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole. 
It is so ordered.
SHAW, HARDING, ANSTEAD, PARIENTE, LEWIS and QUINCE, JJ., concur.
WELLS, C.J., dissents.
NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION, AND
IF FILED, DETERMINED.
A Notice and Cross-Notice of Appeal from the Circuit Court in and for Lake County,
Jerry Lockett, Judge - Case No. 96-1913-CF-JL
James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Christopher S. Quarles, Assistant Public
Defender, Seventh Judicial Circuit, Daytona Beach, Florida,
for Appellant/Cross-Appellee
-3-
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Kenneth S. Nunnelley, Assistant
Attorney General, Daytona Beach, Florida,
for Appellee/Cross-Appellant
William O. Solms, Miami, Florida; and Kimball E. Gilmer, Charlottesville, Virginia, 
for The Rutherford Institute, Amicus Curiae