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The way the death penalty is decided in Florida is changing after a landmark Supreme Court decision. As Matt Galka tells us, lawmakers will most likely scramble to react.

Judges and not juries decide whether or not criminals are sentenced to death in Florida.  But the United States Supreme Court ruled the system unconstitutional Tuesday.

The ruling came down just as lawmakers settled in to start the 2016 legislative session. Juries don’t need to be unanimous in recommending a death penalty to a judge and the judge has the final say. Senator Thad Altman sponsored legislation to change that before the ruling came down.

“That process is going to remedy better justice and it’s going to prevent mistakes of the past.”

The ruling stems from the case of Timothy Lee Hurst – a Pensacola popeye’s employee convicted of killing his manager. A jury recommended 7 to 5 in favor of the death penalty and a judge imposed the sentence

The Attorney General’s office said it’s still early and thye’re reviewing the ruling

Attorney General Pam Bondi said it’s possible the ruling means legislation is needed.

“Perhaps. We are still digesting the opinion, of course it just came down moments ago…we’ve been working on it to see what’s needed for a fix,” said Bondi.

State Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Shalimar) says if the state wants to keep the death penalty the legislature will need to make changes.

“The timing is right for us to make that necessary adjustment and modernize our death penalty system so we can continue to have capital punishment in the state of Florida,” said Rep. Gaetz.

Michael Sheedy with the Florida Catholic Conference suggested it could be the end of capital punishment in Florida.

“Criminals that commit terrible crimes can be punished very severely without resorting to execution,” he said.

Nearly 400 prisoners sit on Florida’s Death row. The ruling does leave the door open for some appeals, but many of the prisoners on death row have already seen their appeal time expire or were put away based on indisputable aggravating circumstances.