The suspect accused of killing a 9-year-old girl, a woman and an Orlando TV reporter could face the death penalty.
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The state attorney’s office said it would seek the death penalty against Keith Moses, accused of shooting five people in Pine Hills in February; three of them, including a 9-year-old girl and a News 13 reporter, died.
The death penalty law has changed a lot recently. In 2016, it took ten jurors to agree on the death penalty.
Read: State to seek death penalty against triple murder suspect Keith Moses, state attorney says
But now, with the threshold lowered to eight jurors, WFTV legal analyst and attorney Bill Sheaffer said things could be different.
“It’s going to be a lot easier to get eight people to agree that death is an appropriate sentence than twelve people to even agree on where to have lunch,” he said.
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Sheaffer said we could soon see an increase in the number of death penalty cases being prosecuted by the state.
State Attorney Monique Worrell said that while she is unequivocally opposed to the death penalty, the capital punishment review panel recommends that she do so and is therefore bound by the law.
“I would have thought they would seek the death penalty, whether or not the plan has changed,” Sheaffer said. “What I am sure of is that it will increase the probability of getting a death sentence.”
Worrell’s office submitted the recommendation Friday and the panel considered Moses’ age, the number and the ages of the victims.
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