Associated Press: Dr. Nik Gravenstein
Filed under UF In The News on Wednesday, September 20, 2006.
Dr. Nik Gravenstein, professor and chairman of the department of anesthesia, was quoted in a Sept. 20 Associated Press state wire story about the execution of Clarence Hill.
Published Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Killer's Fate With High Court
JACKSONVILLE -- When Florida and other states changed their method of execution from the electric chair to lethal injection, it was viewed by many as a more humane method.
But now some condemned prisoners, including Clarence Hill who is scheduled to die today, are saying the chemicals used in the process can cause the inmate extreme pain and violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Hill, 48, who killed a police officer during a savings and loan robbery in Pensacola in 1982, was strapped to a gurney with IV tubes running into his arms in late January when the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and stopped his execution.
The high court later ruled 9-0 that Hill should be able to file a challenge to Florida's execution procedure and sent the case back to lower courts to rule on Hill's claims. His claims were all rejected.
Hill's fate now rests again with the high court, where his lawyer has filed an appeal and a request that Hill's execution be stayed until a hearing can be held on whether inmates suffer extreme pain when they are executed. Lawyers for the state argue that Hill waited too long to challenge the execution process and his execution should go forward.
Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that he thinks the court will turn Hill down.
"We've had 16 cases of lethal injection that have taken place over the last years and there have been chances for appeal and the process has been upheld. So my expectation is that the execution will go as planned," Bush said.
As with most of the 38 states that use lethal injection, Florida uses three chemicals in its execution procedure -- sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The first drug is a painkiller. The second one paralyzes the inmate and the third causes a fatal heart attack.
An article published in 2005 in Lancet, a British medical journal, argues that prisoners may have experienced awareness and unnecessary suffering because they were not properly sedated. One argument is that the pancuronium bromide could cause the inmate to be in extreme pain but not able to communicate it because he is paralyzed.
Deborah Denno, a professor of law at Fordham University, said lethal injection is not what many lawmakers and the public think -- that it is like putting an animal to sleep.
"We think the process is inhumane and tortuous, the result of medical folly, political compromise," she said.
Dr. Nik Gravenstein, a professor and chairman of the department of anesthesia at the University of Florida College of Medicine, said there are many possible problems in an execution that could cause an inmate pain.
But now some condemned prisoners, including Clarence Hill who is scheduled to die today, are saying the chemicals used in the process can cause the inmate extreme pain and violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Hill, 48, who killed a police officer during a savings and loan robbery in Pensacola in 1982, was strapped to a gurney with IV tubes running into his arms in late January when the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and stopped his execution.
The high court later ruled 9-0 that Hill should be able to file a challenge to Florida's execution procedure and sent the case back to lower courts to rule on Hill's claims. His claims were all rejected.
Hill's fate now rests again with the high court, where his lawyer has filed an appeal and a request that Hill's execution be stayed until a hearing can be held on whether inmates suffer extreme pain when they are executed. Lawyers for the state argue that Hill waited too long to challenge the execution process and his execution should go forward.
Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that he thinks the court will turn Hill down.
"We've had 16 cases of lethal injection that have taken place over the last years and there have been chances for appeal and the process has been upheld. So my expectation is that the execution will go as planned," Bush said.
As with most of the 38 states that use lethal injection, Florida uses three chemicals in its execution procedure -- sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The first drug is a painkiller. The second one paralyzes the inmate and the third causes a fatal heart attack.
An article published in 2005 in Lancet, a British medical journal, argues that prisoners may have experienced awareness and unnecessary suffering because they were not properly sedated. One argument is that the pancuronium bromide could cause the inmate to be in extreme pain but not able to communicate it because he is paralyzed.
Deborah Denno, a professor of law at Fordham University, said lethal injection is not what many lawmakers and the public think -- that it is like putting an animal to sleep.
"We think the process is inhumane and tortuous, the result of medical folly, political compromise," she said.
Dr. Nik Gravenstein, a professor and chairman of the department of anesthesia at the University of Florida College of Medicine, said there are many possible problems in an execution that could cause an inmate pain.
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