Ronald Carl Pennington, Jr. v. Florida
DueProcess Punishment
Question not identified.
1. Whether instructing the jury that the defendant could be found guilty on a theory that he aided and abetted a State agent in committing a crime effectively negated his entrapment defense thus violating his constitutional rights under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments? 2. Whether, contrary to the Due Process and Jury Clauses, the trial court erred in imposing an enhanced sentence under a statute authorizing the enhancement based on nonjury fact -findings upon proof by a preponderance of the evid ence? 3. Whether a mandatory life sentence for a non -homicide offense violates the cruel and unusual punishment clauses in light of this Court’s decisions subsequent to Harmelin v. Michigan , 501 U.S. 957 (1991) ? 4. Whether Petitioner was de prived of his right, under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, to a trial by a 12 -person jury when the defendant is charged with a serio us felony? Questions 2 and 4 are before this Court in the petition for writ of certiorari in Parker v. Florida Case No. 24-6146. The arguments as to those questions in this petition are essentially identical, if not ii literally identical, to the arguments i n the petition in that case.