The Florida Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that Rick Scott does have the authority to remove 24 death penalty cases from the Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala. The attorney representing Ayala had argued that Governor Scott had overstepped his constitutional authority. Representatives for the Governor had claimed since Ayala announced she would not seek the death penalty in any case, she is abdicating her responsibility as a prosecutor instead of upholding the law.

In the decision, the Court was critical of how Ayala handled the case, ruling that “…by effectively banning the death penalty in the Ninth Circuit—as opposed to making case-specific determinations as to whether the facts of each death-penalty eligible case justify seeking the death penalty—Ayala has exercised no discretion at all…Thus, under Florida law, Ayala’s blanket refusal to seek the death penalty in any eligible case, including a case that ‘absolutely deserve[s][the]death penalty’ does not reflect an exercise of prosecutorial discretion; it embodies, at best, a misunderstanding of Florida law.”

The court concluded: “The executive orders reassigning death-penalty eligible cases in the Ninth Circuit to King do not exceed the Governor’s authority on the facts of this case. Therefore, we deny Ayala’s petition.”

Justices Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince dissented from the decision. You can read the decision here: http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2017/sc17-653.pdf