happened yet: i'm jamison uhler. florida's death penalty system was found unconstitutional. >> carson chambers is live in downtown tampa to break down what is at stake here. carson. >> reporter: >> reporter: state legislators rush to change the law. and also we know the question, the big question is tonight, whether more capital cases that have already been decided are going to be affected. >> quite frankly the whole death penalty process is a mess. we don't know what to do. marchly here in florida. >> reporter: florida was set to execute terry lambricks in a number of days. but the supreme court stepped in and granted a stay. >> it's an interesting issue. the question is, what did their jury determine? if their jury was unanimous, then they mayo owe their death

and not be overturned by the supreme court. if their jury was 7-5, 8-4 for death and the judge imposed it, then we might have a situation where the supreme court says no. >> reporter: today the florida supreme court heard from lambricks' attorney. since the process was ruled unconstitutional his sentence should be commuted to life. >> although he committed two murders, we have an 8-4 jury recommendation. two more jurors voting for life, he would have had life. >> reporter: in the meantime around 40 of nearly 400 other death row inmates have pending appeals. and locally in bradenton, trials that haven't even happened are in question. the attorneys of bradenton accused triple murderer avalos says the state can't move forward with the capital murder trial. >> those cases will probably be put on hold until we decide what the legislature is going

the death penalty in the state of florida. >> reporter: and the florida attorney general's office argues that this ruling should not apply to former cases, so it should not apply retroactively. also we know that florida lawmakers are under a lot of pressure. they have six weeks to get this legislation revamped. i'm carson chambers, abc action news. >> thank you, carson. want to get to breaking news on the zika virus. the cdc is now reporting six new travel related cases right here in florida, including a second confirmed case in hillsborough county. and doctors at the mayo clinic say florida could see locally transmitted cases by the summer. listen to this, there is a confirmed case in texas that was transmitted sexually. that's the first time we're hearing that. scientists in uganda are pushing into the zika forest in an attempt to better understand

when it was first discovered, human symptoms were mild. thanks to a mutation and cheaper trial, it has taken scientists by surprise, causing this current outbreak. still developing tonight, plant city police are interviewing neighbors of a man killed right outside of his home last night. 31-year-old jose was stabbed to death. and tonight police are still searching for the person who did it. it happened around 9:00 last night in the rosebrook mobile home park. we were there this morning as investigators hauled off an suv. they did not say how it was involved in the investigation. so far police are not saying if they have any suspects. right now a tampa man is behind bars accused of driving under the influence and crashing into the gates at air force base. alvarez is being held on more than $7,000 bond tonight. tampa police say he was passed out behind the wheel of his running car yesterday afternoon. police believe he was involved in three different accidents

leaving the scene of an accident. covering manatee county now. a tree trimmer was shocked about i a live power line. this all happening around 3:30 this afternoon on pearl avenue. the 28-year-old man was a contract worker also working light. he was taken to the hospital breathing. the most accurate weather team in florida abc action >> good afternoon, everybody. after a foggy start, things warmed up nicely. sunshine returns. so far we are rain free with temperatures in the lower to middle 80s across most of the viewing area. a little cooler along the beach with the water temperature still cool, comparatively speaking. satellite picture after the fog burned off. it is quiet. this evening we won't see as much fog as last night. what about tomorrow morning? we will take a closer look at that and talk about rain two of the next five days. which ones? coming up in a couple minutes.

new video into the news room of moments after a plane went down in the water off of the coast of miami. you can see the plane right there at the bottom of the ocean. a witness says the plane took a nose dive into the water. it was two south american flight students on board the plane. luckily no one was injured there. the 19 and 20-year-old took off from marathon. the f.a.a. and ntsb are investigating tonight. it is registered to a company on merit island. a man will face a judge for attacking a passenger and two flight attendants mid flight. washington, d.c. to put another passenger in a head attendants before being restrained. he faces 20 years in prison if convicted. well, tax season is starting. if you don't have the funds to use a tax service, there is a free tax filing service that you can take advantage of right ashley yore is live at the town

where a help session is underway. ashley, tell us about it. >> reporter: wendy, right here you can see volunteers are working to file your taxes for you and the best part about it, it's all free. >> there's help everywhere if you look for it. >> reporter: you will find a free tax service in eight hillsborough county libraries this month. she knew where to turn for her third time using the filing service. the single mother and college student is thankful she is saving a few hundred bucks. >> that money has a plan already. i'm glad that i actually can pay other bills that i have to pay. >> reporter: aarp and united way partner with the county libraries, offering free help to anyone who makes less than $54,000 a year, people with disabilities, the elderly and limited english speakers. the volunteers are qualified to help. >> we all have to go through

have to take a comprehensive test every year so we're certified. >> reporter: make sure that you bring your social security card and all of your paperwork like this retiree has been doing for years. >> very lucky for me the last three years. i got a refund. >> when they're ready to help you, that's wonderful. i appreciate it a lot. >> reporter: you can make appointments for help at this location. there are 7 other spots to head to as well. some of them no appointment needed. and we're going to have all of those lists for you on our website, abcactionnews.com. this story. reporting live in town and action news. >> president obama offering a lesson plan of sorts for school districts across the country to the education department money can be used for state testing. you can use it to audit and

the quality of tests and increase the time to take them. president obama wants to cap standardized testing at 2% of classroom time. teachers across the state are considered effective or highly effective. the florida department of education released the teacher evaluation report. 98% of teachers earned effective or highly effective ratings for the 2014-2015 school year. less than 1% of teachers were given the lowest rating. covering sarasota county now. we want to talk about sarasota school officials who will vote to approve the purchase of 24 new school buses in sarasota. there we go. apparently it will cost two and a half million dollars and will replace some of the oldest worn down buses in the fleet. now we move to hillsborough county. a meeting there on a controversial expressway is just underway.

morning before the planning meeting. tbx would expand interstates to reduce traffic there. it would cost billions and tear through at least 100 buildings. some worry it will kill property values and recent revitalization. >> i don't think you can find more than a handful of people in tampa in support of this project. those that are in support of it are the ones that stand to make money as paving contractors or real estate developers. >> the meantime fdot is loading a meeting in half an hour at the children's board of hillsborough county. there is a protest planned for saturday. we have all of the details on abcactionnews.com. jamison. >> january's powerball jackpot leads to a record fund for florida schools. it shattered all previous monthly sales record, bringing in $760 million in january alone. more than 200 million of that went straight to the lottery's

that's the lottery's highest ever contribution. it was driven by the $500 million powerball jackpot. funding for our sports stadiums. lawmakers are discussing what teams should get money. but the bucs are not on the list. the reason why coming up. plus this -- >> go. go. g . >> reporter: this veteran is in need.

>> a new port richey veteran is facing the loss of a therapy dog that was helping her cope. >> eric waxler tells us what happened. >> go. go. go. >> this was one of the worst ambushes in the valley. >> are you hit? >> reporter: two tours in afghanistan took a total on ethan kennedy. >> when the rpb hits, i lost consciousness and i came to and everything was spinning. >> reporter: after serving 7 years in the army, he came home, suffering from post-

>> jumpy, a lot of anxiety and a sense of paranoia at times. >> reporter: that's when zena came in, the therapy dog became her companion and his savior. >> always having her by my side helped. it brought down the anxiety. just look at her and immediately that goes away. >> reporter: but just as he was improving, moving forward with his life, a freak accident. while he was at work, zena ran into the street and got hit by a car. the dog couldn't be saved. >> i wasn't in a good place. that's for sure. it was very difficult. >> reporter: he never thought he would want another therapy dog. now he realizes there's a void. family members are raising money to get him another one. the support that he has gotten is overwhelming. >> it makes you see that the world is not that bad of a place. >> reporter: that's coming from someone who has truly seen the worst of it. >> are you okay? >> reporter: in new port

>> lawmakers in florida are considering handing out millions to sports teams but the bucs are not one of them. the department of economic opportunity says the application was not complete. the legislature is instead looking for funding in jacksonville and miami and daytona international speedway. polytechnic university has ashed 10 awards for the unique building. named the innovation science and technology building in lakeland. it is one of glass magazine's best projects. the state of the art structure was finished in 2014. it's been a rainy winter here in the sunshine today. today south florida water officials confirm this was the rainiest january since 1932. floridians are accustomed to seeing little to no rain from november to may. more than 9 inches fell in south florida just last month.

normal for the month. and, den, i know we have had more rain around than normally. i needed to make sure that was correct. you normally don't hear 470% more rain. >> yeah. we have a lot more on the way. of course we have it on the first day of the florida state fair. >> windy and rainy. >> that's thursday. but right now, soak it up, folks. it is beautiful out there. even with the fog this morning. we certainly had a lot of it. it was dense fog. there were dense fog advisories covering most of the area. it burned off by 9:00, 10:00. otherwise a very nice day and a warm one. as titan doppler radar shows rain-free conditions for the time being. and temperatures in the low to mid 80s. plant city 84 degrees. upper 70s along the coast. and downtown tampa right now, the airport, skies are mostly sunny. 79 degrees.

st. pete, sunny and 78. now, that wind is significant. even though it only says 5 to 10 miles per hour, it will happen. as the wind continues overnight and into tomorrow, while it's rather light, it should be just enough to keep the fog from really becoming nearly the issue tomorrow morning than this morning. we have said this many times. you have to have the temperature and the dew point the same and the winds need to be calm. they're not. and i don't think they will be either as we continue to see southeast moisture that we talked about leading to that slight chance of a couple of sprinkles across the interior counties over the next few hours. visibility as you see right pretty much unlimited visibility. although they want to pick up the possibility of sea fog it will be. as was the case last night, most of the fog starts interior. and even by tomorrow morning, we're looking at visibility of three to four miles. that's nowhere near what we had

well, less than a hundred feet and then some. off shore, there will be that sea fog out there. and i suspect there will be advisories needed off shore. just not so sure that that will move inland too far, if at all. so the bottom line is tomorrow morning should not be nearly as foggy as it was this morning. but it will be every bit as warm, with high temperatures back in the low to mid 80s under a good deal of sunshine. this evening, partly cloudy skies. tomorrow morning, fog. and then another nice day. then all of a sudden late tomorrow night into thursday, we look off to the northwest. there comes the front. and first thing on thursday morning, there is a chance of a couple of showers. but the actual front itself will still hold back way to the northwest and arrive here by mid to late morning and push on through into the afternoon. so if you are planning ongoing to the fair on thursday, i'm not going to call it a washout in a way, but there will be rain out there. potentially even a couple periods of heavy rain through the 5:00 hour.

morning, things will begin to clear out. now, rainfall totals through friday, this is nowhere near as heavy as the last go-around, when folks had two, three, in some cases four inches of rain. through friday afternoon, i think our southern counties may get, well, maybe only a third of an inch of rain. whereas the central counties half an inch to an inch. definitely measurable rain. no doubt about that. just not as heavy. that's thursday. saturday night into sunday is a different story. we will touch on that closer to the event. i think there is a descent chance of severe weather saturday night into early sunday morning. we could be talking about severe storms as well and maybe even a tornado possibility as well. that is something that we will have to track saturday night into sunday morning, a long time to keep our eyes on it. it is by no means set in stone yet. this is. the forecast highs tomorrow 80

dade city, 86 the models are going with. 84 in brooksville. and i think most folks east of i-75, look at those forecast highs. right along the immediate coastline because the water is only about 60, clearly their temperatures will be significantly cooler. still, very pleasant. for the boaters agent east winds tomorrow picking up a little bit. that will keep the fog from settling down at the surface. seas two to three feet. gulf water 63 degrees. moderate chop out on the bay. there will be dense sea fog off shore. there are your upcoming tides, unrise and sun -- sunrise and sunset. to percent chance of rain tomorrow night. best chance is on thursday as the storming roll through. friday, a nice day. just cooler. mid 60s. saturday and sunday, the rain chances to be saturday night into sunday morning. it is not a washout of a weekend. if we time it well, it will be

clearing next sunday into early next week. drinking and driving is never a good idea. doing it with your kids in the car is even worse. coming up, the unexpected call that landed in georgia mom behind bars. plus, shredding on the slopes. a favorite past time for many in utah. look at this. the toddler taking the internet by storm. and the biggest challenge this little girl faces when she goes snowboarding. a popular waterfront restaurant is being forced to close. tonight we investigate his landlord's reasoning and why the owner says it just doesn't

>> a 16-year-old georgia girl calls the police on her own mom for drink driving. he had was weaving all over the road examine when she refuse

>> a brave and bold move on her part to report her own mother. in the long run she could have saved her life. >> her daughter's friends were also in the car. deborah miller is facing dui charges. this is video that you just have to see. take a look. a 14-month-old girl barely able to walk but she is taking on the slopes. look at that. sloan henderson is her name. she is learning how to shred on her snowboard. it all started in their backyard in utah. on friday she hit the slopes in park city. >> a lot of people stopped us and told us how cute she was and also said, you know, she really going to be snowboarding? so when we actually went down the slopes, people were really impressed how good she was. >> she is so cute. her parents say one of the biggest challenges was just finding a helmet that would fit her.

next at 5:30, polk county cuts a drug rehab program funded by taxpayers. what is next for the people who look to them for help. >> i noticed i could fit into the pants better. that is pretty amazing. and later, in surgery, no problem. next at 5:30, the new trend destroying stubborn fat without

>> live from the station taking action for you. this is abc action news. >> now at 5:30, gross miss management and wasteful spending. an addiction program doesn't deserve my more money and the council is cutting them off. >> what now for the dozens on the road to recovery.

>> there are situations and