December 15, 2006
Friday’s events
Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida suspended all executions in the state today, citing a troubled execution on Wednesday and appointing a commission to consider the humanity and constitutionality of the way inmates are put to death in the state.
Hours later, a federal judge ruled that California’s death penalty protocol violated the constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
* * * *
Governor Bush’s decision came two days after an executioner failed to properly inject lethal chemical into an inmate. Officials said the needle administering the chemicals punctured the vein and then delivered the dose into the inmate’s soft tissue, rather than the vein itself. A second dose was required, and the inmate died 34 minutes after the initial injection.
Normally death occurs within 15 minutes. [This is factually incorrect. Death normally occurs in six to seven minutes, anything much longer than that is likely the result of a botch.]
The decision in California, which followed a four-day evidentiary hearing and a session at the state prison in San Quentin, was eagerly anticipated and probably represents the fullest and most careful consideration yet of the question of whether the way inmates are executed around the nation violates the Eight Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Judge Jeremy Fogel, of the Federal District Court in San Jose, delivered a mixed verdict. “Defendants’ implementation of lethal injection is broken,” he wrote of state officials, “but it can be fixed.”
Deborah W. Denno, an authority on execution methods at Fordham University School of Law School, said the decision was “both bold and safe.”
“Judge Fogel’s decision is the most definitive response so far in concluding that a state’s lethal injection protocol, in its current form, is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment,” Professor Denno said.
The Death Penalty Information Center also has a wrap-up of this years events. Long story short, both 2006 & Friday December 15th weren’t good for those who still support state killing.
California Lethal Injection opinion.
Florida moratorium?
December 14, 2006
More than a little sickening
- In addition to those blogs previously noted several blogs are especially paying note, including the Lethal Injection blog, the Angel Diaz’s blog, and the King’s blog. Do yourself a favor and do not read these articles while eating or you will ruin your meal. (I found out the hard way.) All three blogs include a blow by blow of the botched execution.
- A whitewash commission appears to have has been appointed in Florida to examine what went wrong with the Diaz execution. I use the term whitewash as not a single member of the commission will be a person who is not a state employee with it being compromised almost exclusively of political appointees.
- The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday granted a request to preserve evidence in the Diaz execution and sent the case to a judge in Ocala to consider whether there should be an independent autopsy in the case.
December 13, 2006
Bad LI Botch in Florida
Mark Elliot was on the scene outside the Florida State prison and reports that members of the media who witnessed the execution say they had to administer the lethal injection TWICE. He also reports that the family of Angel Diaz was despondent, wailing and crying and beating the ground for over an hour. One passed out and paramedics were called. Those who have witnessed outside the prison at many executions report that they have never experienced such a traumatic display of grief at an execution. At the press conference, the DOC spokesperson was unable to answer many questions from the media, repeatedly saying “we’ll get back to you on that.”
The *only* video media present was Spanish language - also a rarity for Florida. I am sure there will be much made of this - certainly in Puerto Rico. According to Mark, the delegation from PR outside the prison told him they had generated more than 15,000 individual appeals for clemency to Jeb Bush, which were of course, ignored.
As one sign at the prison read, “Execution in Progress, MERRY CHRISTMAS.”
Angel Nieves Diaz, who was convicted of murdering a Miami topless bar manager 27 years ago, was executed by lethal injection Wednesday, appearing to grimace before dying 34 minutes after receiving the first dose of chemicals.Diaz, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m., despite his protests of innocence and requests for clemency made by the governor of his native Puerto Rico. He appeared to move for 24 minutes after the first injection. His eyes were open, his mouth opened and closed and his chest rose and fell.
I should note there was a decent factual innocence claim.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment