Florida Death Penalty Inquiry Welcomed
| NEW YORK, Dec 22 (OneWorld) - Death penalty opponents and human rights organizations are hailing Florida governor Jeb Bush's decision this week to temporarily halt all executions in his state. "We welcome his executive order," said Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, of Amnesty International, the London-based group that has been campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States and elsewhere for years. Bush decided to suspend further executions and formed an inquiry commission after a medical examiner said last week that the lethal injection procedure performed on a death-row prisoner was botched. Death penalty activists described the formation of the inquiry commission as "a step in the right direction," but expressed dismay that the governor had failed to address the issue of lethal injection earlier. "It is deplorable that it took the atrociously blotched execution of Angel Diaz for the governor to admit that Florida's lethal injection protocol might be unconstitutional," said Gunawardena-Vaughn. Diaz was strapped onto a gurney and given an injection that was supposed to kill him within 15 minutes. Instead, he lay there making facial expressions that have been described as squinting and grimacing, while reportedly trying to speak. Diaz died 34 minutes after the process began, and only after prison officials gave a second injection. Before his death, Diaz called his execution an act of vengeance. He was convicted of committing a murder some 27 years ago. Those speaking on behalf of death-row prisoners say lethal injection causes unnecessary pain and suffering, and argue that this execution method is in violation of the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The injection method was introduced to U.S. prisons in 1977. For almost 100 years before that, jail wardens used electrocution as the main method of execution, according to historians. Prison authorities in the United States have also used gas chambers and firing squads in the last century. Prior to that, hanging was the common method of execution. Currently, as many as 38 U.S. states carry out the death penalty, according to Amnesty International. All but one allow authorities to use lethal injection as a method of execution. Only the state of Nebraska still uses the electric chair, the groups says. Published studies explain that when the injection method is used, the prisoner is usually bound to a gurney and a member of the execution team positions several heart monitors on his skin. "Two needles are then inserted into veins, usually in the arms. Long tubes connect the needle through a hole in a cement block wall to several intravenous drips," according to "Perfecting death: When the state kills, it must do so humanly," a 1994 study authored by William Ecenbarger, an independent researcher. The first is a harmless saline solution that is started immediately, Ecenbarger explains. Then, at the warden's signal, a curtain is raised exposing the prisoner to the witnesses in the adjoining room. After that, the inmate is injected with sodium thiopental, an anesthetic, which puts the inmate to sleep. Next flows Pavulon or Pancuronium Bromide, which paralyzes the muscle system and stops the prisoner's breathing. Finally, the flow of potassium chloride stops the heart. In addition to Florida, the issue of lethal injection has also gained urgency in California. Last week a federal judge described the method as cruel and ruled that it clearly violated the U.S. Constitution. A similar case is pending in the U.S. Supreme Court and courts have granted stays of execution by injection in Missouri, Maryland, Ohio, and Washington, DC. Those closely studying various aspects of capital punishment say they hope that increased legal efforts to challenge the use of lethal injection will have a positive impact on the campaign to abolish the death penalty. "The injection issue is just part of the larger debate on the death penalty. It will be resolved only after stopping the death penalty," Richard Dietor, executive director of the Washington, DC-based Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), told OneWorld. Noting that public support for the death penalty has declined over the past few years, Dietor said the trend within the legal community suggests that a change is in the offing. Wrongful convictions have raised serious questions about the fallibility of the process. Diaz was the 53rd and last person to be executed in the United States this year. According to DPIC, the number of executions this year was down from 60 the year before and 98 in 1999. While anxious to hear the recommendations of the Florida commission on lethal injection, Amnesty's Gunawardena-Vaughn said, "instead of tinkering with the machinery of death, Florida should focus its resources on effective crime prevention measures and abolish the death penalty, once and for all." The commission is due to submit its report by March. |
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