Newswise — The United States Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty system, ruling it unconstitutional because the judge has the ability to override a jury's decision on the ultimate sentence. This could mark a shift in the Supreme Court's general attitude about the death penalty, said an expert in death penalty cases.
“In recent years, more justices have voiced strong doubts about how the death penalty is applied in the United States,” said Jessica Gabel Cino, associate professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law. Cino worked on a death penalty case in Florida this summer which ended in a life sentence.
"The death penalty in the United States may be on its way out, but it likely will take several more years of the Supreme Court working its way through some thorny issues on political ideology, morality, and constitutionality," she said.
Cino said she is somewhat optimistic that the vote was 8 to 1, but given that this was a sixth amendment issue which requires the jury to ultimately find the facts that point in favor of life or death, it should not have been a difficult decision to reach.
Cino currently has another death penalty case in Florida on appeal to the 11th Circuit. She teaches teaches courses on forensic evidence, forensic medicine, bankruptcy and contracts. She has written on a wide-range of topics, including the validity of forensic evidence genetic testing, forensic DNA identification, trial and jury tactics, bankruptcy fraud, lender liability, legal ethics and bioethics.
Cino also consults on various criminal and bankruptcy matters and has engaged in numerous pro bono criminal defense representations. You can read some of her work at http://works.bepress.com/jessica_gabel/. For Cino's biography, visit http://law.gsu.edu/profile/jessica-gabel-cino/.
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