It’s not unusual for lawyers representing Death Row prisoners whose execution dates have been set to file last-minute appeals to try to get more time to argue about why their clients should be spared. But an attempt by death-penalty lawyer Marty McClain on behalf of Mark James Asay, scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection late this month, is even more complicated.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, warning that murder trials across the state could be placed in limbo, has asked the Florida Supreme Court to clarify a sweeping death penalty ruling it handed down last week. In two linked cases, the court first concluded that death sentences must require a unanimous jury and then struck down a newly enacted law that allowed a defendant to be sentenced to death as long as 10 of 12 jurors recommended it. In the rulings, the…
