The governor of Florida, Rick Scott, criticized today that the public prosecutor Aramis Ayala, against the application of the death penalty, will let expire the term to request this punishment to a woman accused of stabbing a young man.
However, it is not clear why Ayala, state prosecutor for Orange and Osceola counties in central Florida, did not process the death penalty petition for Emertia Mapp, 33, accused of Zackery’s death. Ganoe, 20
The prosecutor’s office, which maintains a fight with Scott, who relieved him of cases since he announced that he would not seek the death penalty for any of his trials, had announced that he would request this punishment for Mapp, accused of manslaughter in first grade.
“It’s absolutely scandalous,” Scott said of the 45-day deadline to do so, following the formal filing of charges against Mapp.
Scott said today that victims and their families “deserve an answer as to why this critical deadline was not met.”
Ayala’s office said today that they were going to litigate the matter, taking into account that the defense had filed a motion asking that the death penalty not be taken into account, and that it was confident that they would have “a favorable ruling.”
The confrontation between Ayala and Scott reached the Florida Supreme Court, which agreed with the governor’s rejection that he had exceeded his authority by stripping Ayala of cases.
Last April, Scott stripped the prosecutor of about twenty first-degree murder cases because of his refusal to consider the death penalty.
“I will continue to review the cases of reassignment of her office since she is not fighting for the victims and their families,” Scott said today.
After losing the legal battle against Scott, Ayala said he would only pursue the death penalty in first-degree homicide if his advisory panel unanimously accepted it.
