While the state's death penalty hangs in the balance, the debate continues.

Did the Florida Legislature go far enough in repairing Florida's death penalty sentencing scheme this year?

Politically, what would it take to make Florida the 21st state to abolish the death penalty?

Only 16 out of 3,000 counties in the nation have imposed five or more new death sentences since 2010, and one of them is Duval County.

Those hot topics came up during The Florida Bar's Reporters' Workshop on September 20, when former Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero moderated a panel titled "Death Penalty: A Look at the Hurst Case."

Panelists--Martha Barnett, a retired senior partner at Holland & Knight, who asked for a moratorium on the death penalty when she served as ABA president; Hank Coxe, a former Florida Bar president and Jacksonville defense attorney; and Dara Kam, a reporter for the News Service of Florida--delved into the history of Florida's death penalty, the politics surrounding capital punishment, and the evolving public sentiment against the death penalty.

Meanwhile, they explained, Florida's death penalty hangs in limbo while waiting for the Florida Supreme Court to rule on two questions:

Did Hurst v. Florida, the United States Supreme Court case in January, declare Florida's death penalty unconstitutional?

If not, do the Florida Legislature's repairs to the statute in 2016 apply retroactively?

Those questions were certified by the Fifth District Court of Appeal as matters of great public importance. Oral arguments were heard in June in Larry Darnell Perry v. State of Florida (SC1 6547). Two executions scheduled for February and March have been stayed. Generally, the prosecution of death penalty cases in Florida has been held in abeyance. And a federal case in Jacksonville, regarding the constitutionality of the lethal injection process, has been put on hold.

"The new elephant in the room is unanimity," Cantero said. "When I was on the court, I wrote a decision in State v. Steele. In that case, we said the Florida scheme was constitutional, but we questioned whether a jury recommendation [for death in the penalty phase of a murder trial] by a 7-5 vote was constitutional. We suggested that the Legislature change it to require unanimity."

At that time, Cantero said, while 38 states had the death penalty, Florida was the only state in the nation that did not require some form of unanimity in either determining whether an aggravating circumstance exists to make a convicted defendant eligible for the death penalty or recommending the death sentence.

"When I say we are...