The legal team representing Florida dєatᩚh-row prisoner Wade Wilson has made clear its intention to carry a consтιтutional challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court following proceedings before the Florida Supreme Court. The appeal does not contest Wilson’s convictions for the 2019 murders of two women; it focuses exclusively on the validity of the dєatᩚh sentences imposed under a 2023 change in state law.
Wilson was found guilty of the first-degree murders of Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43, both of whom were killed in Cape Coral, Florida, on the same day in October 2019. After the guilt phase, the jury recommended the dєatᩚh penalty by votes of 9-3 for Melton’s murder and 10-2 for Ruiz’s murder. Circuit Judge Nicholas Thompson accepted those recommendations and formally sentenced Wilson to dєatᩚh in August 2024. Wilson is currently housed at Union Correctional Insтιтution in Raiford, Florida. No exє𝔠uti☉n date has been scheduled.
The core of the appeal centers on Florida’s 2023 legislation that lowered the threshold for a jury’s dєatᩚh recommendation from a unanimous vote to a simple 8-4 majority. At the time the crimes were committed in 2019, Florida law still required unanimity. Wilson’s appellate counsel, Michael Ufferman, has maintained that applying the newer, less demanding standard to offenses that occurred before the statute took effect violates the Ex Post Facto clauses of both the United States Consтιтution and the Florida Consтιтution, as well as a state statute that generally bars the retroactive application of laws affecting crime or punishment.
On February 5, 2026, the Florida Supreme Court held oral argument in the case, docketed as Wade Steven Wilson v. State of Florida (SC2024-1345). Ufferman did not re-argue the consтιтutional claims in detail. He acknowledged that the court had already addressed and upheld the 2023 law in earlier decisions, most notably Hunt v. State and Jackson v. Florida in December 2025. Instead, he stated that his purpose was to preserve the issues on the record so they could be presented to the U.S. Supreme Court. The state’s attorney declined to present additional argument and simply asked the court to affirm the lower court’s ruling. Multiple contemporaneous reports indicate the panel upheld the dєatᩚh sentences.
Ufferman has publicly reiterated that the consтιтutional questions remain viable and that seeking review by the nation’s highest court is the appropriate next step. As of the most recent publicly available reports through mid-to-late 2026, no peтιтion for a writ of certiorari had yet been filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. Wilson remains on dєatᩚh row, and Florida’s capital appeals process is typically lengthy, often spanning many years.
The case continues to draw attention because it tests the boundaries of Florida’s relatively low threshold for imposing the dєatᩚh penalty and the limits on retroactive changes to sentencing rules. Further developments will depend on whether Wilson’s attorneys formally seek U.S. Supreme Court review and whether that court agrees to hear the matter.
Sources : Court TV
