Benjamin Davis Smiley, Jr. v. Florida
AdministrativeLaw DueProcess Punishment
Does the decision of the Florida Supreme Court in Smiley v. State, 295 So.3d 156 (2020), violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of Equal Protection?
QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Does the decision of the Florida Supreme Court in Smiley v. State, 295 So.3d 156 (2020), violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of Equal Protection where the method of calculating the number of aggravating circumstances by the jury and trial court and consideration of those aggravating factors by the jury and trial court and the method of determining and weighing the mitigating circumstances was a substantial deviation from decades of precedent and resulted in a sentencing process that was arbitrary, capricious, and a process that was unfair, inconsistent, and unreliable? 2. Does the decision of the Florida Supreme Court in Smiley v State, 295 So.3d 156 (Fla. 2020), violate the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial by an impartial jury and the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection where the Prosecutor was permitted to inform the jury in voir dire that, of sixty pending first-degree murder cases in the office, this case was among only eight or nine in which the State of Florida was seeking the death penalty thereby denying Petitioner a fair trial by an impartial jury? i