The Florida Supreme Court ruling in Abdool v. Bondi is available in Adobe .pdf format.
"Florida court upholds death penalty changes," is the initial AP report, via WINK-TV.
The Florida Supreme Court is upholding a law aimed at speeding up death sentences.
The court unanimously on Wednesday ruled that the "Timely Justice Act" is constitutional. Justices rejected arguments that the measure unfairly limited the ability of condemned inmates to introduce new evidence.
Florida legislators passed the law in 2013 in response to criticism that some convicted murderers remain on death row for decades.
The law created stricter timeframes for appeals and post-conviction motions. It also enacts reporting requirements on case progress.
Before the law was passed Gov. Rick Scott began speeding up the pace of executions. There have been 17 executions since Scott took office in 2011.
Another Florida execution is scheduled for next week; more on that case, below. Earlier coverage from Florida begins at the links. You can also jump to news of the Timely Justice Act.
The Tampa Bay Times reports, "Lawyer: Killer is mentally disabled, therefore should not be executed," by Jon Silman.
John Ruthell Henry, 63, is set to be executed Wednesday for his wife's murder after 27 years on death row. Baya Harrison has represented him for 14 years.
"I've been trying to help this guy unsuccessfully for a long time," Harrison said. "Now it's starting to get bad; we've run out of appeals."
Harrison effectively told a judge, after a temporary stay for a mental health check, that Henry was out of options.
Then something unexpected happened. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled May 27 that Florida has been misinterpreting the threshold for calling a person mentally disabled.
Under the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, the Supreme Court has said mentally disabled people cannot be executed.
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