About ten days ago, Terence Lenamon’s motion to have former Florida state attorney Aramis Ayala testify for the defense in the death penalty trial of Markeith Loyd was denied by Judge Leticia Marques. For details on Ayala’s stance on the death penalty and how that played in the Loyd proceedings, read our earlier discussion (which includes the full text of the defense motion seeking her mitigating testimony). From that motion:
Ayala’s testimony is significant in that as the sitting and elected State Attorney, she determined that despite the interpretation that these crimes were “brutal”, the brutality was nevertheless outweighed by mitigating factors that guided her to a decision not to seek death.
This week, Aramis Ayala, the first African American to serve as a State Attorney for the State of Florida, announced in a video published on her official Facebook page that she will not run for a second term as state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties.
You can watch her announcement here.
Ayala’s stance on the death penalty has only become clearer since the day that Governor Rick Scott removed all the capital cases from her docket. She is now considered by the news media as “…a national figure soon after her death penalty decision and has traveled overseas to speak about why the death penalty should be abolished.” Orlando Political Observer, May 30, 2019.