JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — This week, Nassau County jurors are hearing evidence in Patrick McDowell’s case to decide whether he lives or dies. McDowell pleaded guilty to shooting and killing Nassau County Sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Moyers in 2021.
“Patrick McDowell should be sentenced to death,” Chris Huband with the State Attorney’s Office 4th Judicial Circuit told the jury during the state's opening statements on Monday.
McDowell's trial comes at a time when it's easier to be sentenced to the death penalty in Florida than just a year ago.
Florida no longer needs a unanimous jury to recommend death in a death penalty trial and certain child sex offenders are now eligible for a death sentence. The first of these laws was changed one year ago on Saturday.
Since the law changed, juries have recommended death for two people in Duval County. But if those cases were tried before the new law, there would not have been enough jurors to recommend a death sentence.
Shannon Schott, past president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Northeast Chapter, said because fewer jurors are now needed to recommend death, it’s likely more attorneys and defendants are trying to negotiate in order to avoid getting to that point.
In the past year, juries have recommended that Markas Fishburne and Michael Jackson receive the death penalty.
Neither of their juries voted unanimously for death. Fishburne’s jury was an eight to four vote and Jackson’s was a 10 to two vote, according to the State Attorney’s Office. If either of them had been tried earlier, they would have been given life in prison, because they did not have a unanimous vote for death.
“What we are hearing from the attorneys who are representing these individuals is that the rules have changed in the middle of the game because the law was applied retroactively," Schott said. "It doesn’t matter what day the offense happened, it’s the day that they get sentenced.”
Schott said a judge still has the final say in sentencing.
McDowell’s defense begins its case on Thursday. They are expected to produce witnesses with insight into McDowell's past military experience and apparent addiction issues.