Well here is the case in its entirety. Sorry I couldn’t give it in PDF form. All my research on West Law and Lexis Nexis are being done from my phone.

So they did not get denied an appeal. The decision that you are reading is the appeal. Any time you read a court case, that is an appeal. Trial courts are not expected to write opinions for their judgments. They can and sometimes write reasons for the judgment, but these aren’t published in reporters like appellate cases are. This appeal just affirmed the decision of the trial court, which rendered the boys guilty and sentenced them to the death penalty. I also want to add that this case was heard “en banc” (pronounced “on bonk”). An appellate court is made up of nine justices. When a case goes to appeal, usually only three of the justices are assigned to it and they make the decision for the case. When a case is heard en banc, this means it is heard by all the justices of the appellate court and they all take part in deciding on it. En banc decisions aren’t unheard of but are not common by any means. Before a case is heard en banc, it is also decided by the traditional three judge panel. The fact that it was heard en banc means that it was likely controversial, because other justices on the bench disagreed with the original three panel judges’ decision such that they voted to hear the case en banc. I don’t have a cite for this paragraph. This is just my knowledge of the judicial system as a law student.

If your question is why did the boys’ judgment not get overturned on appeal, that’s a different question. From what the case says, the boys admitted on cross examination that when they made the confession no threat of violence or force was made against them. So they had conflicting testimony which would negate their claim that the confessions were made under duress.

What I can add is that the punishment violated the Eighth Amendment for cruel and unusual punishment. Unfortunately the United States Supreme Court did not decide on this until Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988), which held that execution of defendants under the age of 16 at the time of the crime was prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. And in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2004), the US Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibited the death penalty of anyone who committed the crime before 18, but most states already held this way before this decision.

According to the concurrence in Bell v. State, 841 So. 2d 329 (2002), Cray was the last time a death penalty was carried out on anyone 16 years old in Florida. There were death penalties imposed on four 16 year old defendants but in all cases the death penalty was vacated (Farina v. State, 680 So. 2d 392, 398-99 (Fla.1996); Morgan v. State, 639 So. 2d 6, 8 (Fla.1994); Brown v. State, 367 So. 2d 616, 625 (Fla.1979)). The concurrence in Bell further states “Thus, we agree that our decision in Allen interpreting the Florida Constitution compels the finding that the death penalty is cruel or unusual if imposed on a defendant under the age of seventeen.” See Bell, citing Allen v. State, 636 So. 2d 494 (1994).

As for it being rushed, I haven’t found any evidence of this. Nor if it were rushed, any evidence as to why it was rushed.

Hope this helps some.