No. 20-6060

Benjamin Davis Smiley, Jr. v. Florida

Lower Court: Florida
Docketed: 2020-10-19
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
IFP
Tags: aggravating-factors capital-sentencing cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment jury-determination mitigating-circumstances sentencing
Latest Conference: 2021-01-08
Question Presented (from Petition)

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 considera tion 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 l56 (Fla. 2020) , violate the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial by an impartial jury and the Fourteenth Am endment 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 de ath penalty thereby denying Petitioner a fair trial by an impartial jury?

Question Presented (AI Summary)

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?

Docket Entries

2021-01-11
Petition DENIED.
2020-12-03
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/8/2021.
2020-11-18
Brief of respondent State of Florida in opposition filed.
2020-10-04
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due November 18, 2020)

Attorneys

Benjamin Smiley
Robert Anthony NorgardNorgard, Norgard & Chastang, Petitioner
State of Florida
Carolyn M. SnurkowskiOffice of the Attorney General, Respondent