State of Florida v. William Frances Silvia

LEWIS, J,

dissenting.

Today this Court advances for the first time a new excuse, not a valid reason, to push Florida’s death penalty jurisprudence into an unconstitutional abyss. This case is a classic example which illustrates application of this Court’s retroactivity approach to Hurst v. Florida, — U.S. -, 136 S.Ct. 616, 193 L.Ed.2d 504 (2016), and Hurst v. State, 202 So.3d 40 (Fla. 2016), to deny relief to defendants who have fully and completely preserved the constitutional challenges to Florida’s death sentencing scheme. This new denial approach results in equal protection and due process…