Sonny Boy Oats, Jr., Petitioner v. Julie L. Jones

Summary

The court denied Oats's habeas petition, holding that the rule requiring jury findings in capital sentencing does not apply retroactively to his sentence, which became final in 1985. It also held that Florida may assign the trial judge, rather than a jury, to determine intellectual disability because that determination bars execution rather than authorizes a death sentence. Justice Pariente, concurring in part and dissenting in part, would have applied the sentencing rule retroactively and ordered a new penalty phase; Justice Lawson concurred in the result.