Kenneth R. Jackson, Appellant v. State of Florida, Appellee

Summary

The court affirmed Jackson’s convictions but vacated his death sentence and remanded for a new penalty phase. It held that the sentencing procedure violated the Sixth Amendment because the jury made only a nonunanimous advisory recommendation and did not unanimously find the facts necessary to authorize death, including that sufficient aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigation. The court further held that the error was subject to harmless-error review but was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt here. Justice Pariente, concurring in result, agreed that the error was not harmless but would have applied the court’s previously articulated Hurst harmless-error analysis without revisiting the scope or remedy of the error.