150 Fla. death row inmates to be re-sentenced

About 150 death row inmates in Florida will likely be re-sentenced after the state’s supreme court ruled Thursday that their original sentences came under an unconstitutional system, BuzzFeed News reported.

The court estimated 150 inmates will be effected and said the actual number could be even higher.

{mosads}The Florida high court is responding to a January decision by the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the state’s rule that allowed a judge — not a jury — to sentence a convict to death.

The state’s supreme court in October struck down a law allowing a jury to sentence a convict to death if 10 of the 12 jurors agree.

It ruled Thursday that the U.S. Supreme Court’s January decision applied retroactively to Florida death row inmates sentenced after the 2002 Supreme Court case of Ring v. Arizona.

“Of those defendants currently on death row, approximately 45 percent have sentences that were final before the Supreme Court issued Ring,” the court ruled.