Opinion ID: 1670351
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: judicial vs. jury fact finding

Text: If the holdings of Ring and Apprendi are to be applied as written, it is apparent that Florida's sentencing scheme is at risk because of the scheme's express reliance upon findings of fact made by the trial judge rather than findings of fact made by a jury in determining the existence of aggravating circumstances which must be established and utilized as a basis for imposing the penalty of death. [19] Ring and Apprendi expressly hold that defendants are entitled to a jury determination and findings of fact as to the existence of any aggravating factors necessary to increase their sentences. As the Court explained in Ring: Apprendi ... held that the Sixth Amendment does not permit a defendant to be expose[d] ... to a penalty exceeding the maximum he would receive if punished according to the facts reflected in the jury verdict alone. This prescription governs, Apprendi determined, even if the State characterizes the additional findings made by the judge as sentencing factor[s]. Ring, 536 U.S. at ___, 122 S.Ct. at 2432 (quoting Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 492, 120 S.Ct. 2348) (citation omitted). In extending Apprendi and Sixth Amendment protection to the determination of aggravating factors that are applied to capital defendants the Court made clear, Capital defendants, no less than non-capital defendants, we conclude, are entitled to a jury determination of any fact on which the legislature conditions an increase in their maximum punishment. Id. Thus, Ring requires that the aggravating circumstances necessary to enhance a particular defendant's sentence to death must be found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt in the same manner that a jury must find that the government has proven all the elements of the crime of murder in the guilt phase. It appears that the provision for judicial findings of fact and the purely advisory role of the jury in capital sentencing in Florida falls short of the mandates announced in Ring and Apprendi for jury fact-finding.