Florida inmate protests execution over nonunanimous verdict, denial of counsel for 15 years

A Florida death row inmate has asked the Supreme Court to halt his execution — just days away — saying he was denied a lawyer for 15 years and his conviction resulted from a nonunanimous verdict, contrary to due process.

Edward Thomas James asked the justices Monday to hold off on his execution, scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, and take up his dispute.

In his court filings, James’ lawyers say putting him to death based on a nonunanimous jury verdict runs afoul of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

“Nonunanimous jury recommendations do not comport with the evolving standards of decency,” one of his filings reads.

His legal advocates also argued that he had waived state review and discharged his counsel after his death sentence, and went without access to an attorney for 15 years. The issue, the lawyers say, questions his due process rights and mental capacity.

James killed a woman and her granddaughter, who was 8 years old, in 1993.

He first raped the granddaughter before strangling her. After that, he went to the grandmother’s room to have sex with her but instead stabbed her to death, according to The Associated Press. James admitted to the killings and had been renting a room from the grandmother at the time.

Florida and Alabama do not require a unanimous jury verdict for a death sentence, making them outliers.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in a filing Tuesday said the high court is unlikely to have four justices willing to visit the issues James raised and that the stay of execution should be denied. 

He also said the high court permits judges to issue sentences, so there should be no Eighth Amendment violation with a non-unanimous jury.

“If the Eighth Amendment does not require jury sentencing, which it does not under this Court’s current precedent, then it cannot require unanimous jury sentencing,” he wrote.