& SC13-1959 Lucious Boyd v. State of Florida & Lucious Boyd v. Julie L. Jones, etc.

Under the Florida Statutes, a person who has been convicted of a felony is disqualified from service on a jury unless and until his or her civil rights have been restored. See § 40.013(1), Fla. Stat. (2015). However, the statute fails to provide any specific remedy when a disqualified individual actually serves on a jury. In my view, the dispositive issue should be whether the jury was properly comprised under the law, not whether the defective jury performed properly. Therefore, when a convicted felon serves on a jury, as occurred in this case, a structural defect is present that invalidates…