An appeals court says a Hillsborough man can be sentenced to death even if a jury recommendation is not unanimous

Scales of Justice Law — Scales of Justice. By www.ccPixs.com (CC).

A man charged with murdering two people in 2018 in Hillsborough County is subject to a 2023 law that allows death sentences to be imposed after non-unanimous jury recommendations, an appeals court ruled Friday.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal overturned Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Lyann Goudie’s decision that a unanimous jury recommendation would be needed to sentence defendant McKinsie Lyons to death.

The panel, in a nine-page ruling written by Judge Anthony Black and joined by Judges Susan Rothstein-Youakim and J. Andrew Atkinson, said Goudie improperly disregarded a precedent from the 5th District Court of Appeal in a Volusia County case that involved the same issue.

In 2018, when Lyons is alleged to have committed the murders, state law required unanimous jury recommendations before judges could sentence defendants to death.

But the 2023 law allowed as few as eight jurors to recommend execution for judges to impose death sentences.

Friday’s ruling did not detail the circumstances of Lyons’ charges, but Tampa Bay-area media reports said he was accused of murdering two people in a Ruskin home.