Social justice over public safety.
Florida’s governor took a case involving the killing of a police officer out of the hands of its prosecutor Thursday, hours after she announced that her office would no longer seek the death penalty.
Gov. Rick Scott signed the order to remove Markeith Loyd’s first-degree murder case from the office of State Attorney Aramis Ayala, which serves metropolitan Orlando in central Florida. Scott transferred the case to State Attorney Brad King in a neighboring district northwest of Orlando.
Loyd is charged with killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend and Orlando Police Lt. Debra Clayton.
Ayala said she made the decision after conducting a review and concluding that there is no evidence to show that imposing the death penalty improves public safety for citizens or law enforcement. She added that such cases are costly and drag on for years.
Ayala was elected last fall in a judicial district that has grown from being moderately conservative to liberal over the past two decades.
“I have given this issue extensive, painstaking thought and consideration,” Ayala said at a news conference. “What has become abundantly clear through this process is that while I do have discretion to pursue death sentences, I have determined that doing so is not in the best interests of this community or in the best interests of justice.”
Buddy Jacobs, who has been general counsel for the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association for more than four decades, said no other prosecutor in recent memory has opted out of seeking the death penalty.
After Ayala announced her decision, Scott asked her to recuse herself from the case, but she refused. The reassignment applies only to Loyd’s case and not Ayala’s other duties since under Florida law, a governor can only suspend an elected official for “malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, habitual drunkenness, incompetence, or permanent inability to perform official duties.”
Florida law allows a governor to reassign a case for “good and sufficient” reasons.