Florida Supreme Court – Criminal Headnotes – July 13, 2017
KEVIN G. JEFFRIES, JR. V. STATE OF FLORIDA – SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE – DISPARATE SENTENCING – PROPORTIONALITY – REMAND FOR PENALTY PHASE POST-HURST WHERE JURY RECOMMENDATION NOT UNANIMOUS
Direct appeal from conviction for first-degree murder and sentence of death. The court finds sufficient evidence to support the conviction.
The court declines to consider the defendant’s disparate sentencing claim, where each of two co-defendants had pleaded guilty. The court finds no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors, nor in the trial court’s determination the death sentence was proportional. However, because the recommendation of the penalty phase jury was not unanimous, the death sentence is vacated post-Hurst. Other penalty phase issues not reached.
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