Nearly two years after Wade Wilson was sentenced to death for the murders of Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz, the most important new development in the case is not a newly discovered piece of crime-scene evidence, but a legal battle over whether Florida was allowed to use its newer, non-unanimous death-penalty law against him.

Wilson was convicted in June 2024 of murdering Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43, in Cape Coral, Florida, in October 2019. A judge imposed two death sentences in August 2024 after jurors recommended death by votes of 9–3 in Melton’s case and 10–2 in Ruiz’s case.

What has become especially important now is when the crimes happened compared with when Florida changed its death-penalty law.

The killings occurred in 2019. But in 2023, Florida changed its law so that jurors no longer had to unanimously recommend death. Under the newer system, an 8–4 recommendation can be enough for a judge to impose a death sentence. Wilson’s defense argues that applying that newer rule to crimes committed years earlier raises constitutional and retroactivity questions.

In February 2026, Wilson’s appellate attorney appeared before the Florida Supreme Court. Instead of presenting a long new factual challenge to the murders themselves, the attorney acknowledged that recent Florida precedent had already undermined the state-level arguments he intended to make.

But that did not necessarily end the issue.

Wilson’s attorney publicly said he intended to preserve the constitutional challenge so it could potentially be taken to the U.S. Supreme Court.