Orrin Hatch: “In another case, LeCroy v. State [533 So.2d 750 (Fla. 1988)], the Florida Supreme Court, by a vote of six to one…”

“In another case, LeCroy v. State [533 So.2d 750 (Fla. 1988)], the Florida Supreme Court, by a vote of six to one, affirmed a death sentence for two brutal first-degree murders by LeCroy, who was 17 years and 10 months old when he committed the murders. The court noted, among other things that the sentencing judge gave great weight to LeCroy's youth but found him mentally and emotionally mature. It also noted that Florida statutes clearly provided for some decades that 17-year-olds charged with capital crimes should be punished as adults. Construing U.S. Supreme Court precedent, it ruled that there was no constitutional bar to the imposition of the death penalty on those who were 17 at the time of the capital offense. In her lone dissent, Justice Barkett concluded that the eighth amendment of the Federal Constitution prohibited Florida from executing those who were under 18 at the time of the crime. Reaching out to overturn this death sentence seems to be another clear instance of the nominee injecting her own policy preferences for the law.”