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Legislation to require juries in death cases to vote unanimously for death is moving in the State Capitol after years of delay. A case before the US Supreme Court could have a dramatic impact on Florida’s death cases if the bill doesn’t pass.

In May 1998, Cynthia Harrison was found bound, gagged, and stabbed to death in a Pensacola Popeyes restaurant.The safe empty. Another employee, Timothy Hurst, was convicted in the murder. The jury recommended 7-5 that Hurst be sentenced to death. Now that split vote threatens to undermine Florida’s death penalty. The U.S. Supreme court says it will hear Hurst’s case this term. Ingrid Delgado of the Florida Catholic Conference says it’s because Florida is an outlier.

“Well we are the only state that doesn’t require unanimity on each aggravating circumstance. And number 2, we’re one of very few states that don’t require unanimity in the recommendation to the judge” says Delgado.

Florida’s supreme court began asking lawmakers to require a unanimous jury as early as 2005.

After 23 years as a cop. State representative Ray Pilon is a co-sponsor of legislation requiring unanimous jury verdicts. “We still have the death penalty. And I think that it’s only fair that we have a unanimous jury that makes that decision.”

Opponents of the unanimous jury bill point to infamous murderer Ted Bundy. He went ot the electric chair on an 11 to 1 jury recommendation. Delgado says times were different.

“I don’t think the Ted Bundy case is comparable because the jury received a different series of instructions. They weren’t required to be unanimous.”

Florida’s death penalty is already on hold as the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether the drugs used in a lethal injection are considered cruel and unusual.