A death row inmate convicted of slaying Brevard County Deputy Barbara Pill five years ago this month will get a new sentencing hearing.
- Deputy Barbara Pill was shot dead during a traffic stop in 2012
- Brandon Lee Bradley was sentenced to death
- Bradley will get a new sentencing hearing, Florida high court rules
- READ: Florida Supreme Court's official ruling (PDF)
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The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a new sentencing hearing for Brandon Lee Bradley because the ruling from the jury that recommended death was not unanimous. The jurors voted 10-2.
Another death-row inmate, Dwayne White of Deltona, also will be resentenced. He was convicted in the August 2011 stabbing death of his estranged wife, Sarah Rucker, whose body was found in the parking lot of a Longwood Miami Subs.
Pill pulled over Bradley during a traffic stop March 6, 2012. A dashboard camera showed that Pill repeatedly ordered him to get of his car, and he refused. When she reached into his car to turn off the ignition, he shot her multiple times.
"Do they really want people to stop killing cops? If we began executing them in a timely manner, it might take targets off cops' backs," said Steve Pill, Barbara's husband, after hearing news of the death penalty case.
At a news conference at the Brevard County Jail on Thursday, law enforcement officials had strong words for the ruling.
Bradley "is a thug who deserves to die for taking the life of Barbara Pill, someone who had given her life for protecting others," Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey said.
State Attorney Phil Archer said he hasn’t made a decision on the case yet and wants to get input from the Pill family. But he added it's very likely he'll seek death.
"My office will carefully and thoroughly review the available evidence, obtain input from family survivors and law enforcement, and then make a determination on whether to again seek the death penalty in each of these cases. However, as it pertains to the Brandon Bradley case, it is hard to imagine a scenario in which my office would not continue to seek the death penalty," Archer said in a statement.
"I am waiting to see what the State Attorney's Office will do," Steve Pill said.
The convictions of both Bradley and White were upheld. Both cases were sent back to the 18th Judicial Circuit for resentencing hearings.
If a new jury's recommendation isn't unanimous, Bradley will receive life without parole.