By David Oscar Markus
In Florida state court, you try your non-capital felonies to six jurors. The Supreme Court blessed that setup in Williams v. Florida, 399 U.S. 78 (1970), and for fifty-six years that was the end of the conversation.
Maybe not anymore.
Yesterday the Court granted cert in Kian v. Florida, No. 25-6623, to decide whether the Sixth Amendment entitles a defendant charged with a serious felony to a jury of twelve.
The defendant is Hamed Kian, a chiropractor out of Jupiter. A six-person jury convicted him on five counts of practicing with a suspended license, and he drew a year and a day. The Fourth DCA affirmed with a PCA. Kian v. State, 421 So. 3d 439 (Fla. 4th DCA 2025).
The argument is one that has been kicking around lately, including an order from Judge Milton Hirsch* in 2022 saying that the Constitution demanded 12 jurors. Justice Gorsuch also said as much three years ago, dissenting from the denial of cert in Khorrami v. Arizona.
The cert petition came out of the Public Defender's office in West Palm Beach. Paul Petillo and the PD15 appellate shop got the Supreme Court to grant review in a case the Fourth DCA did not bother to write an opinion on. We really should get rid of PCAs.
Argument is set for the fall. If Williams falls, a whole lot of Florida verdicts get interesting in a hurry.
*Speaking on Judge Hirsch, the New York Times covered an fascinating only-in-Miami story and Order that he wrote here. Plus, the story was written by Dave Ovalle who is back covering Miami court stories, now for the Times.
4 comments:
I don't get it. The 4th PCA's it. The Florida Supremes ditto that. How does that make it to the US Supreme Court via acceptance of cert? Someone put the Justices on alert that this was coming up. Maybe one of Gorsuch's clerks plucked it out of the trash bin of files to be stamped "cert denied" and took it straight to his/her boss. There is a back story here.
This is how cert petitions get granted, a judge takes an interest in an issue and they look for a case that features it. They don't care what 4th would have said issue is whether SCOTUS will overrule their own precedent, obviously 4th wouldn't write on that.
If it’s a PCA but the issue implicates the federal constitution, the case bypasses the Florida Supreme Court and goes directly to SCOTUS.
What is "it" that don't you "get"?
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