The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request for a rehearing by a man who shot and killed an Orlando police officer in 2017. Justices did not explain their reasons for denying a rehearing motion filed in November by attorneys for Markeith Loyd.
The motion came after the Supreme Court upheld Loyd’s conviction and death sentence in the murder of Orlando Police Lt. Debra Clayton.
Loyd shot Clayton after she spotted him in a Walmart store while he faced an arrest warrant in the murder of Sade Dixon, who had been pregnant with his child.
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The motion asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling and send the case back to a circuit court for a new sentencing hearing. The motion focused on music that played while jurors saw a montage of photos of Clayton during a sentencing proceeding.
The motion said the music was improperly aimed at appealing to the emotions of jurors.
“Given the uniquely subjective nature of penalty-phase decision making, erroneous admission of evidence which appeals solely to emotion should be treated as per se reversible error,” the motion said. “This is so because there is no way to calculate to what extent any individual juror’s decision was affected by that evidence.”
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Chief Justice Carlos Muniz and Justices Charles Canady, Jorge Labarga, John Couriel and Renatha Francis voted to reject the rehearing motion.
Justice Jamie Grosshans, a former Orange County circuit judge, was recused from the case, while Justice Meredith Sasso, who was appointed to the court in May, did not take part.
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