TAMPA — Trial courts in the Tampa Bay area have reached a consensus: Florida has no death penalty and won't until lawmakers rewrite the state's statute.A day after Hillsborough prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty for a 30-year-old woman accused of murdering both her parents-in-law, a trial court judge's ruling in another capital case has foreclosed that possibility, at least for the time being.Citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down part of Florida's capital sentencing scheme, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Samantha Ward said the court's opinion has blocked the state's ability to condemn prisoners to Florida's death row, which is already the second-largest in the country."The United States Supreme Court held Florida's capital sentencing scheme unconstitutional. This Court, therefore, concludes that there currently exists no statutory authority in Florida under which the State can seek the death penalty, nor this Court impose the death penalty," Ward wrote.Ward's decision comes a few weeks after a judge reached the same conclusion in a Pinellas County case .On Jan. 25, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Michael Andrews told prosecutors they could not seek the death penalty against a Pinellas Park man accused of fatally shaking and striking his 3-month-old daughter because Florida currently has no death penalty."This court concludes that there currently exists no death penalty in the State of Florida in that there is no procedure in place," he wrote.The Hillsborough case that Ward ruled on centered around Carlos Ruben Rivas, 52, who has been charged with killing a homeless man in Tampa in 2012. Rivas is one of at least 17 defendants in the county who currently have pending first-degree murder charges and against whom the state is pursuing capital punishment.Despite widespread debate over the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hurst v. Florida , Hillsborough prosecutors have gone about their work as if nothing has changed. Since Jan. 12, when the Hurst decision came out, they have filed notices of intent to seek the death penalty in three different cases.In the Rivas case, they argued that the court's decision had merely invalidated a facet of Florida's sentencing statute — but not the death penalty overall. With Rivas' three-week trial scheduled for April, lawmakers would have plenty of time to amend the statute, prosecutors said.Rivas' public defenders said the Supreme Court's ruling was considerably broader than prosecutors wanted to acknowledge and that it had essentially cut off the state's path to the death penalty."They argue basically that Hurst did not declare the death penalty per se unconstitutional," said Hillsborough Assistant Public Defender Theda James. "If that's true your honor, then why is the Florida Legislature in the process of rewriting the statute?"Florida lawmakers have passed two competing versions of a new death penalty statute.Under Florida's old law, which was found unconstitutional, juries played an advisory role in recommending life or death. They did not have to give a specific factual basis for their recommendation, nor did their vote have to be unanimous.A simple majority of 7-5 was enough to send a death recommendation to the judge, a standard so low that it is applied no where else in the country.The Florida Senate would require juries to reach a unanimous decision , both on whether a defendant is eligible for capital punishment, and on whether he should be sentenced to death. Judges would also no longer be able to override a jury's recommendation of a life sentence and impose a death sentence.The Senate version, which is favored by defense attorneys, goes considerably further than the bill that passed by the Florida House of Representatives, which has the backing of state prosecutors. The House version raises the bar for recommending the death sentence to a 9-3 vote. Contact Anna M. Phillips at aphillips@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3354. Follow @annamphillips.