Timothy Lee Hurst, Appellant v. State of Florida, Appellee

Summary

The court affirmed Hurst’s death sentence after concluding that the trial court acted within its discretion in denying a successive mental-retardation hearing, properly determined that Hurst had not proven intellectual disability, and was not required to submit that question to the jury. The court also rejected Hurst’s constitutional challenge to Florida’s capital-sentencing procedures and found the sentence proportionate in light of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances. Justice Pariente, concurring in part and dissenting in part, would have vacated the death sentence because no jury unanimously found a death-qualifying aggravator.