EXCERPT
Convicted killer Michael Lambrix is scheduled to be executed Feb. 11, one of 390 Florida death row inmates whose fate is now in question after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the state’s method of imposing death sentences.
Several legal experts, however, said the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled a decade ago in a similar Arizona case that decisions like the one affecting Florida cannot be applied retroactively to condemned inmates who have already exhausted their appeals. Still, former Miami U.S. Attorney Marcos Jiménez said defense lawyers are likely to argue that the new decision should apply to all Florida death row inmates.
“The retroactivity question is difficult, but the short answer is that (the U.S. Supreme Court decision) will apply retroactively at least to all death penalty cases still pending either at the Florida trial court or Florida appellate court level,” Jimenez said.
