Florida Supreme Court removes 2 murderers from death row

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Supreme Court is ordering that two death-row inmates convicted of murder be sentenced to life.

The court issued its ruling Thursday, reducing the sentences of the men, who were convicted of unrelated double murders in Polk County and Jacksonville.

Terrance Phillips was convicted of the December 2009 killings of Mateo Hernandez-Perez and Reynaldo Antunes-Padilla in Jacksonville. The court considered the fact that Phillips was 18 at the time of the crime and borderline intellectually disabled in reducing his sentence.

Robert McCloud was convicted of the October 2009 slayings of Tamiqa Taylor and Dustin Freeman during a drug robbery in Poinciana. The court ruled that he shouldn’t have been sentenced to death when three co-defendants received lesser sentences, especially since a jury determined McCloud wasn’t the shooter.