FL Supreme Court: Prosecutors can seek death penalty

Marisol Best is accused of killing her husband’s parents during a prayer session.

Hillsborough Colonel Donna Lusczynski say she was angry at her in-laws for criticizing their son about his legal troubles.

"We still have to prosecute this case in court. We're not going give every detail of that conversation, but that is shocking a normal person wouldn't respond that way,” said Col. Lusczynski.

Prosecutors wasted no time seeking the death penalty. But recently, Marisol’s attorneys filed a motion to get the death penalty off the table because it had been ruled unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court.

Justices said a jury must be unanimous on their decision to hand down the death penalty, which is not the current law.

Marisol's lawyers were hopeful, but her chances of winning were significantly lowered Tuesday, when the Florida Supreme Court ruled prosecutors can continue to seek the death penalty on active cases. despite the fact legislators have been dragging their feet and have yet to fix the law.

"Unfortunately there's been no action and the Supreme Court has to do something,” explained Attorney Anthony Rickman.

Justices issued a new ruling, finding only a sliver of the death penalty law unconstitional.So they found a fix for that.

"If the jury is instructed that they must come back unanimously - meaning all 12 jurors. Then a person can now be sentenced to death in the state of Florida,” said Rickman.

In fact, Rickman says he was surprised by the latest ruling.

"It appears to be a complete reversal of the court's prior decisions of just a couple of weeks ago,” said Rickman.          

In that ruling, they said prosecutors could not seek the death penalty until the law was fixed. While it is an about-face, it will begin to ease the log jam of cases that have been on hold for over a year.