An elected prosecutor in Florida who has declined to seek the death penalty in a pair of high-profile murder cases is now suing the Florida governor for removing her from those cases and assigning them to a prosecutor from another district. State Attorney Aramis Ayala, who serves Osceola and Orange counties, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday claiming that Gov. Rick Scott (R) violated her constitutional rights when he signed a series of executive orders directing her reassignment from 23 murder cases in which she wouldn’t be pursuing the death penalty. Earlier this month, Scott signed 21 additional executive orders putting King in charge of other capital cases, many of which were already in progress or had defendants that had long ago been sentenced to death — but who needed to be re-sentenced because the Florida death penalty statute had been found unconstitutional. Ayala’s lawsuit seeks a declaration that Scott violated the Constitution and that she is the rightful elected prosecutor with discretion to manage these capital prosecutions.

Source: Huffington Post April 12, 2017 00:45 UTC