Hurst v. State
Annotate this CaseAppellant was convicted for the 1998 first-degree murder of Cynthia Harrison and sentenced to death. Concluding that the trial court erred in denying Appellant’s postconviction claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, the Supreme Court remanded for a new penalty phase hearing. The trial court subsequently entered an order sentencing Appellant to death. The Supreme Court affirmed the sentence, holding (1) the trial court did not err in finding that Appellant was not mentally retarded and exempt from execution; (2) constitutional error did not occur because the advisory jury in the penalty phase was not required to expressly find specific aggravators or issue a unanimous advisory verdict on the sentence; and (3) Appellant’s death sentence, when compared to the death sentences in other comparable capital cases, was proportionate.
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