Arias was found guilty of the first-degree murder of her lover Travis Alexander by the same jury last week. Under Arizona law, the jury’s sentencing recommendation must be unanimous. (Florida, in contrast, requires only a simple majority of the jury to recommend the death penalty. Florida is the only state in the nation which does not require a unanimous jury for a death penalty recommendation.)

A hung jury (one which is not unanimous) in the death penalty phase of a trial in Arizona requires a new jury to be seated to decide the punishment. If the second jury cannot reach a unanimous decision, the judge would then sentence Arias to spend her entire life in prison or be eligible for release after 25 years.

If the jury is unable to reach an unanimous decision, this jury would be dismissed and a second jury would be impaneled. Upon impaneling a new jury, the parties would have to present the entire case again. The murder conviction would stand and the new panel would be considering only the sentence – but the details of the crime are relevant to the consideration of sentencing.

A presentation to the second jury would like be a bit shorter. Another possible outcome, if the jury deadlocks, is for the prosecutor to abandon pursuit of the death penalty.

Arias stabbed and slashed Alexander about 30 times, shot him in the forehead and slit his throat in what authorities said was a jealous rage. Arias claimed it was self-defense.

U.S. prosecutors say Hartman is one of seven people charged in federal court in Tampa with a scheme that bilked investors out of at least $137 million. Several companies they created to carry out the fraud, prosecutors said in 2009, were in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties. Federal court papers allege the group hijacked names of more than 50 defunct companies and sold bogus stock in them to investors in Britain and elsewhere for over $100 million.

Most of Hartman’s alleged co-conspirators have previously been found guilty or pleaded guilty.

According to court documents, Paul Robert Gunter and  his daughter led the team that stole the identities of 54 publicly traded companies and sold bogus stocks to retired or semi-retired investors in Ireland and the United Kingdom. They operated out of Palm Harbor and Clearwater. Authorities claim Texas attorneys Roger Lee Shoss and Nicolette Loisel, and Hartman, illegally acquired the identities of the dormant shell companies.

Simon Andrew Odoni and Richard Sinclair Pope are charged with facilitating sales of fraudulent stock to investors. Odoni and Pope also controlled the flow of money from victim investors into bank accounts that the pair could access, according to records.

Hartman reportedly had foreign residency in Costa Rica, and had been living there for an unknown number of years. He entered Nicaragua illegally across the Peñas Blancas border crossing on April 22, according to police. Nicaraguan police reportedly identified Hartman by cross-checking his fingerprints with Interpol records, according to a statement from law authorities.

Tran had been jogging when Jackson attacked her. Tran’s bloodstained jogging clothes and sneakers were found Sept. 13, 2007, on a grassy berm at the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on County Road 579 in Seffner. Her body was found in a stolen van set on fire in a field 14 miles away in Gibsonton. Her throat had been slashed.

Two former Hillsborough County jail inmates testified at trial that Jackson described the rape and murder to them in detail. A saliva DNA sample from Jackson matched DNA in semen recovered from Tran’s body.

He was convicted of first-degree murder, armed sexual battery, theft of the van and arson.

In a plea for a life sentence instead of execution, Jackson’s defense attorneys presented psychologists who said Jackson suffered from an antisocial personality disorder with psychotic tendencies. They theorized that an unhappy, unstable childhood lay behind the disorder. He was born to a 15-year-old girl, was raised by a drug-abusing grandmother, has an IQ of 75, reads at a first-grade level in the fifth grade, and couldn’t name one friend.

Eleven of the 12 jurors recommended the death penalty in November. Florida is currently the only state in which a trial court jury can recommend a death sentence by simple majority – all other states require a unanimous recommendation. Under the current procedure, a jury must first return a guilty verdict before the “penalty phase” of trial. After additional testimony and evidence is presented, the jury then considers sentencing and makes a recommendation to the court.

The final sentencing decision rests with the trial judge. A judge must give the jury’s recommendation “great weight” but may overrule a jury recommendation of death and sentence a criminal to life in prison. While possible, this scenario is very rare.

Prosecutors claim Welden forged his father Dr. Stephen Ward Welden’s on a prescription for Cytotec, a drug used to induce abortion or to treat a “missed” miscarriage. He reportedly relabeled a pill bottle as “Amoxicillin” and told the woman that his father wanted her on antibiotics.

The woman took a pill on her way to work, then quickly felt abdominal pain and began bleeding, the prosecutor said. She lost the baby at a hospital.

The incident occurred in March after an ultrasound at the elder Welden’s office confirmed the pregnancy. The doctor, a board certified obstetrician and gynecologist, has not been accused of any crime.

The woman, Remee Lee, was six weeks and five days pregnant. Her attorney has indicated that she was excited about the pregnancy and wished to keep the baby.

Welden could not be charged with the murder of a 6-week-old fetus in Florida’s state courts because Florida’s laws reference unborn children which were a viable gestational age. Federal law, however, is different. The federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 defines “unborn child” as “a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.”

Murder is not typically prosecuted in federal court, absent additional crimes and circumstances. If someone kills an unborn child while committing a federal crime though, it’s considered murder. Welden faces life in prison if convicted.

In Welden’s case, the federal crime authorities claim he committed as part of the murder is product tampering, “with reckless disregard for the risk that another person would be placed in danger of death or bodily injury.” This references the re-labeling of the prescription drug Cytotec.

Welden allegedly admitted his actions in a confession recorded by Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office detectives and a drugstore surveillance camera captured the Cytotec purchase, according to prosecutors.

Banks, who referred to himself “Pastor Banks,” purportedly took improper advantage of Access to Recovery, a federal program that pays for transitional housing and treatment for recovering addicts and alcoholics, on two separate occasions. After his release from a Texas prison in the 1990s, Banks started House of Hope in St. Petersburg and applied for Access to Recovery funds using others’ names.

Authorities now claim Banks submitted bills for residents long before they set foot inside House of Hope and for job coaching for up to 50 people at a time, despite the fact that the facility’s meeting room held fewer than 10 people.

Banks collected more than $110,000 before he was permanently barred from the federal program in 2007.

In 2011, however, Banks became involved with another St. Petersburg halfway house, Agape House. He again qualified for Access to Recovery funds.

According to an arrest affidavit, Banks used forged documents to convince private investors to give money to Agape House. Banks’ name did not appear on any paperwork, as his criminal history would have prohibited him from collecting Access to Recovery funds. About $50,000 was deposited in the Agape House account, but Banks withdrew several thousand dollars with money orders made out to himself and transferred more funds to his Texas bank account.

Banks, charged with felony scheming to defraud, was arrested and released on a $10,000 bond.

Mullens admitted he killed a St. Petersburg convenience store owner and a customer in 2008. He also admitted that he attempted to kill another customer. The shootings were all captured on high-quality surveillance video.

Mullens’ co-defendant Spencer Peeples still awaits trial.

According to court documents, two men walked into Mohammad Uddin’s convenience store, one of them waving a handgun. The men demanded Uddin’s car keys and stole lottery tickets. Prosecutors have said that Mullens shot Uddin after he saw him dialing a telephone. Next, he grabbed store customer Ronald Hayworth and shot him. Another customer, Albert Barton, was about to enter the store when one of the two robbers pulled him inside and shot him. Barton survived the shooting.

Due to the emotional impact the video might have on a jury, Mullens and his criminal defense attorney may believe that he has a better chance of avoiding the death penalty by bypassing a jury of 12 ordinary citizens. Normally in a death penalty case, if a guilty verdict has been returned, a jury then listens to evidence and recommends whether the defendant should die for his crimes. The final determination of sentence is always made by a judge but great weight must be given to the recommendation of a jury.

There will be no trial but there will be a sentencing hearing before the judge that could last for several days. Prosecutors have indicated that they still intend to argue for execution.

The purpose of the Spencer hearing is to ensure the reliability of the penalty and sentencing process in Florida. The hearing is named for Leonard Spencer, who was sentenced in 1989 to death after a jury found him guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and multiple counts of armed robbery.

In Spencer’s case, the defense attorney went looking for the judge and prosecutor and found them in the judge’s chambers, proofreading an order sentencing Spencer to death. Spencer’s attorney, “voiced his concern that the judge had drafted an order expressing his reasons and conclusions for imposing the death penalty prior to Spencer’s counsel having an opportunity to be heard,” according to the appeals court.

The Florida Supreme Court ultimately determined that a trial judge should not formulate his sentencing decision prior to giving the defendant an opportunity to be heard. They then established a procedure to be used in the sentencing phase, which included the trial judge holding a hearing to give the defendant and his or her counsel the opportunity to be heard and an opportunity to present additional evidence – now called a “Spencer hearing”.

In Smith’s case, the judge heard evidence of Smith’s health condition. Defense psychologist Ruben Gur testified that abnormalities in Smith’s brain affect his thinking processes. Possible causes include traumatic brain injury.

“The thinking is hyper-active at the resting stage and shuts down when you need to perform a task,” Gur said. Gur, of the University of Pennsylvania, testified about what he found in MRI and PET scans performed on Smith. He concluded that the abnormalities shown are consistent with brain injury.

Smith is scheduled to be sentenced by the court on May 28. The judge has only two sentencing options under Florida law – death penalty and life in prison without parole.

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was investigating a crash on SR-54 west of Little Road. The tow truck was removing the vehicle involved in the crash and the patrol car was in the center lane while the patrolman assisted in traffic control. A sheriff’s office vehicle was also struck. The tow truck and patrol cars had their emergency lights flashing. The tow truck operator, patrol officers and the driver of the car they were assisting were all outside of their vehicles.

Just after 11:30pm, Gamel veered to the center portion of the roadway and the left side of his 2007 Pontiac G6 collided with the right side of the patrol car and the left side of the crashed car before finally hitting the tow truck. The trooper was also sideswiped and suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Gamel was treated for minor injuries and later booked in the Pasco County Jail on six DUI charges (one DUI and five DUI causing property damage or personal injury). It is likely that the repetitive charges relate to the Highway Patrol vehicle damage (1), the sheriff’s office vehicle (2), the tow truck (3), the original accident’s vehicle (4), and the trooper’s injuries (5). Gamel was later released on $3,000 bail.

No word on whether Gamel faces disciplinary action from the school district.

According to Pinellas County sheriff’s detectives, Johnson went to Unit 447, where William David Casey lived, and stabbed him multiple times in the upper body. Casey’s body was found later by a friend who stopped by to deliver food to Casey. Detectives allege the victim and the suspect knew each other as neighbors. They also claim they were able to link Johnson to the crime scene via fingerprints. No weapon was found.

Robbery may have been a motive, because the victim’s wallet was taken, according to detectives.

According to Florida Department of Corrections records, Johnson has been in prison five times since 1984 for burglary, drugs, sexual battery and dealing in stolen property convictions. He got out of prison in December after serving time on a cocaine charge, and was due to be on probation until 2020.

Casey was arrested last June for trying to set up a sexual tryst with a 13-year-old girl and a Largo police detective posing as her mother. They arranged a meeting, where Casey was arrested on charges of traveling to meet a minor for sex acts and enticing a parent to commit a sex act with a child. Detectives searched Casey’s computer and found six photographs described as child pornography, resulting in even more charges.

Court records show Casey pleaded guilty to the charges March 19. He was sentenced to two years of community control (a type of intensive supervised house arrest), followed by three years of probation. He registered as sex offender last week. Florida’s sex offender database shows that more than 100 men registered as sex offenders and sexual predators live in the mobile home park.

The bodies of John Travlos and Germana Morin were discovered by a massage therapist who arrived for a regularly scheduled appointment and an electrician who was there to do some work on the boat.

Police said Figueroa-Sanabria had worked for Travlos and Morin for at least six months doing odd jobs, painting and cleaning up around the boat. His motive for killing the couple is purported to be robbery. A police spokesman indicated they believe a large quantity of jewelry was missing from the couple’s boat.

Police said they quickly identified Figueroa-Sanabria as a suspect and alerted other law enforcement to look for him. Less than 24 hours later, a North Carolina highway patrol officer pulled over a rented 2004 gold Ford Taurus matching the fugitive alert on Interstate 95 near Rocky Mount in Nash County, east of Raleigh. Figueroa-Sanabria surrendered peacefully, police said. He told officers he was headed to New York, where he has family.

Figueroa-Sanabria has been charged with first-degree murder. He also was wanted on a warrant for trafficking cocaine. It will likely be several days before Figueroa-Sanabria will be extradited to Florida.

Extradition is a legal process one state surrenders a suspected (or convicted) criminal to another state for prosecution, sentencing or incarceration.

If the fugitive does not agree to be extradited, the process is governed by federal law. In this case, the governor of Florida would have to officially demand Figueroa-Sanabria’s return from North Carolina to stand trial, including a copy of the indictment or affidavit. Involving the governor’s offices adds some time to the process. After the fugitive is arrested, the requesting jurisdiction (Florida) then has 30 days to appear in North Carolina to receive the fugitive.

The extradition process also generally allows the fugitive to present a defense – not to the crime charged, but that the person sought by the requesting state is not the person who has been arrested. This mistaken identity defense to extradition would not, again, be an argument that the charging authorities mistook the arrestee for the murderer but that the arresting jurisdiction mistook the arrestee for the actual fugitive.