DHS Seeks Custody of Akbor Miah After 1st-Degree Florida Murder Charge

Q: What comes first for a convicted murderer on death row: a state execution or a federal deportation?

A state execution would come before any federal deportation. In a case like Akbor Miah’s, the key point is custody and sentence priority. He is being prosecuted by Florida for capital murder, and the DHS detainer described in the case is not a command to remove him immediately. It is a request that Florida transfer him to ICE only after the state’s criminal proceedings and any sentence are finished or he is otherwise released. If Miah were convicted and sentenced to death, Florida would keep primary custody to carry out its criminal judgment. Federal immigration authorities generally do not deport someone out from under an active state death sentence. Deportation becomes relevant only if the state case ends without execution being carried out — for example, if the death sentence is overturned, reduced to life, or the person completes or is released from state custody for some other reason. That is also consistent with how ICE detainers work. A detainer is meant to secure transfer at the end of local or state custody, not to interrupt a pending prosecution or supersede a state punishment. In practical terms, for a noncitizen on death row, the state sentence controls while the person remains in state custody. So in this case, if Florida ultimately obtains a death sentence and it survives appeals, execution would precede deportation. Deportation would matter only if the state no longer had a death sentence to carry out.

Q: Is an 8-to-4 jury vote sufficient for execution in a state with the most death row exonerations?

Yes. In Florida, an 8-to-4 jury vote is enough to recommend a death sentence. That is the current rule under a 2023 change in Florida law. To make a defendant eligible for death, the jury must still unanimously find at least one statutory aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt. But once eligibility is established, only eight of 12 jurors must vote for death for the judge to impose a death sentence. The Florida Supreme Court upheld that framework in 2025. Florida is also the state with the highest number of death row exonerations in the country. The material provided puts that total at 30 as of 2025. That record is a major reason critics argue Florida’s lower jury threshold increases the risk of wrongful executions, especially because most death-penalty states require a unanimous jury recommendation. So in a case like Akbor Miah’s, if prosecutors pursue capital punishment and the jury unanimously finds the required aggravating factor or factors, an 8-to-4 recommendation for death would be legally sufficient in Florida. If the jury does not reach that threshold, or if death is not imposed, a conviction for premeditated first-degree murder would instead carry life without parole.

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 16

ICE lodged a detainer against Akbor Miah, asking Florida to transfer him to federal custody after his state murder case ends.
Lake County prosecutors charged Miah with first-degree murder in the May 2025 shooting death of his sister-in-law, Monica Islam, citing DNA from his vehicle, a bullet in the passenger-side door and suspicious internet searches.
DHS said Miah entered the U.S. in 2016, was deported to Bangladesh in 2019, then illegally re-entered and was released into the country on March 19, 2022.
Authorities say he fled to New York after the killing, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service and extradited back to Florida.
The case now runs on parallel tracks: Florida is pursuing the murder prosecution, while ICE seeks to take custody for immigration enforcement after any sentence.