FLORIDA — Everett Miller's recommended death sentence is rare among recent high-profile court cases, but it does not mean the convicted cop-killer will get it.

When a jury recommended a death sentence for Miller on Wednesday, it was only the second time since 2017 a jury has unanimously recommended such a sentence.

That was when then-Gov. Rick Scott transferred cases, include Miller's, from Ninth Circuit State Attorney Aramis Ayala to state prosecutors willing to seek capital punishment.

In most of those recent cases, prosecutors have not been successful in convincing jurors of recommending the death penalty. 

When faced with the decision of recommending life in prison or the death penalty, in most of the recent cases jurors have decided life in prison instead of the death penalty.

In October 2019, a jury recommended Markeith Loyd be sentenced to life in prison instead of death after he was found guilty in the killing of his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon, and her unborn child.

Loyd is also facing trial in May 2020 in the killing of Orlando Police Lt. Debra Clayton.

Loyd's case was one of more than two dozen cases that back in 2017, Scott reassigned to other prosecutors after Ayala said she would no longer seek the death penalty.

Scott Nelson's case was another one of Ayala's cases sent to a different district attorney's office.

In July 2019, a jury found Nelson guilty in the killing of Winter Park nanny Jennifer Fulford. However, that jury decided life in prison — not death — for the man.

And in August 2019, in Seminole County, a jury found Grant Amato guilty of killing his mother, father and brother. That jury recommended life in prison, not death. 

Prosecutors in that case told Spectrum News 13 that it is often difficult to get all 12 jurors to agree to recommend the death penalty.

Criminal defense attorney Jonathan Rose says instances where death row inmates have been exonerated through things like DNA evidence is partly the reason why jurors are more reticent to recommend the death penalty.

“They want to know with utter certainty that this is the person that did it, but I think it gives people concern about the government’s ability to end someone’s life," Rose said. 

The National Registry of Exonerations, a program by Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and the University of California Irvine, tracks exonerations across the country and how they were exonerated.

The group says there are currently 2,515 exonerations in the United States.

"I think we’ve become a much more thoughtful society about these issues in the past several years,” Rose said.

Death penalty sentence recommendations must be under Florida law.

In Miller's situation, he still has a chance to make a case to a judge to spare his life at an upcoming hearing. 

And because the jury's death sentence is just a recommendation, the judge could sentence him to life in prison instead of the death penalty.​