A man sentenced to death for the 2017 killing of an Orlando police officer has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that a prosecutor misled jurors during the sentencing proceedings.
An attorney for Markeith Loyd filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on April 30 to challenge a Florida Supreme Court decision upholding Loyd’s conviction and sentence for the murder of Lt. Debra Clayton. A notice of the appeal was posted Thursday on the Florida Supreme Court’s website.
Assistant District Attorney Nancy Ryan, an attorney for Loyd, alleged that a prosecutor misled jurors by seeking unanimity in their deliberations on Loyd’s sentence.
“Specifically, this (U.S. Supreme Court) rejects argument that misleads jurors about the role they play under local law in the death penalty process, and misleads them in a way that makes them feel less responsible than they should for the life sentence punishment. death decision,” the petition said. “That line was crossed here. The prosecutor argued that the jurors should or should do their best to reach unanimity on the ultimate question before them, a position inconsistent with Florida substantive law.”
The Florida Supreme Court rejected that argument and others in a November decision.
In 2017, Florida lawmakers passed a measure requiring unanimous jury recommendations before suspects can be sentenced to death, although they abolished the unanimity requirement in 2023.
Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office asked the U.S. Supreme Court in a filing Thursday for a delay in filing a response to the petition.
Loyd shot Clayton after she saw him in a Walmart store while he was facing an arrest warrant for the murder of Sade Dixon, who had been pregnant with his child.
