Man executed for Miami bar slaying takes 34 minutes to die

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/sfl-aexecute14dec14,0,3896748.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

Execution of Miami killer drags on for 34 minutes, requires 2nd injection
By Ron Word
The Associated Press

December 14, 2006

STARKE · Angel Nieves Diaz, 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 of two doses of chemicals.

The manner of his death almost certainly will rekindle the argument that Florida's method of execution constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

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 moved and his chest rose and fell. He was pronounced dead 10 minutes after his last movement.

In most Florida executions, the prisoner loses consciousness almost immediately and stops moving within three to five minutes. Two doctors watching a heart monitor wait for it to show a flat line. They then inspect the body and pronounce death. The whole process happens within 15 minutes.

Diaz's final appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court challenged the chemicals used in the state's procedure, but it was rejected about an hour before his execution began.

Attorneys for Diaz and other condemned inmates have been unsuccessfully challenging Florida's three-chemical method as unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment, saying it results in extreme pain that an inmate cannot express because one of the drugs is a paralyzing agent.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said she doesn't think Diaz felt any pain. She said Diaz started snoring and became unconscious after the first three drugs were administered and never regained consciousness.

She said he had liver disease, which required the executioners to give him a second dose of lethal chemicals.

"It was not unanticipated. The metabolism of the drugs to the liver is slowed," Plessinger said.

But Diaz's cousin, Maria Otero, said the family had no knowledge of any liver disease. She said the execution was political.

"Who came down to Earth and gave you the right to kill somebody?" Otero said, referring to Gov. Jeb Bush. "Why a stupid second dose?"

A spokesman for Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, called it a botched execution.

"They had to execute him twice," Mark Elliot said. "If Floridians could witness the pain and the agony of the executed man's family, they would end the death penalty."

Bush said in a written statement that the Department of Corrections followed all protocols.

"As announced earlier this evening by the Department, a pre-existing medical condition of the inmate was the reason tonight's procedure took longer than recent procedures carried out this year," the statement said.

Moments before his execution, Diaz -- who also had a second-degree murder conviction in Puerto Rico -- again denied killing Joseph Nagy during a robbery at the Velvet Swing Lounge.

"The state of Florida is killing an innocent person," Diaz said while strapped to a gurney. "The state of Florida is committing a crime, because I am innocent. The death penalty is not only a form of vengeance, but also a cowardly act by humans. I'm sorry for what is happening to me and my family who have been put through this."

Puerto Rican officials, including Gov. Acevedo Vila and Senate President Kenneth D. McClintock, wrote Bush asking him to stop the execution, but he declined. Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, abolished capital punishment in 1929.

There were no eyewitnesses to Nagy's murder Dec. 29, 1979. Most of the club's employees and patrons were locked in a restroom, which the robbers blocked with a cigarette machine. One dancer hid under the bar but says she didn't see anything.

The case remained unsolved for four years until 1983, when Diaz's girlfriend told police he was involved. Diaz and Angel "Sammy" Toro were charged with the slaying. A third man, "Willie," was never identified, according to a summary of the case by the Florida Commission on Capital Crimes.